Why no Farthing

[sawyl]

Via Torque Control, an explanation of Jo Walton's mysterious absence from UK bookshelves:

At yesterday's BSFA London meeting, Jo Fletcher used as her example of the difficulties of timing in buying books published in America the example of Jo Walton and Australia. Jo Walton, author of Farthing, our Future Classic of the month, isn't published in the UK because her agent waited a little too long before offering the rights; by which points, there was no chance at all that the UK edition would be available in time to sell in Australia, and Australia, although a tiny market by American standards, is really quite large by British ones. Without any hope of being able to sell the prospective UK edition in Australia, the plans was scuppered, and those of us now reading Farthing in the UK are reading imported copies.

Which is a real shame because Farthing is a many layered delight. It works as a subversive take on the country house murder mystery, as an examination of the anti-semitism and homophobia in the British ruling class, as a character study of a honest man compelled by a private secret to do something he hates, and as an homage to Josephine Tey and, especially, Brat Farrer. I've been evangelising about it for years, but it's pretty hard to sell people on something they can't pick up in their local bookshop...

Comments

[papersky.livejournal.com]

This turns out not to be the case, and I've said so in comments on Torque Control as well.

I think Fletcher must be remembering a different book. In fact, I have the rejection letter from Gollancz where they rejected it for not being sufficiently science fictional -- and Australian rights were available and didn't even come up in the conversation.

It makes me a little grumpy to see her saying this because if it were true it would make it all my fault it doesn't have a British edition.

I've just this week sold the UK (and Australian) rights to Tor, because I have given up on British publishers -- if they won't buy _Among Others_, which my agent has been trying with since two years before publication, then there's no hope. So the e-books at least will be available in Britain, and imports will now be legal.

[sawyl.livejournal.com]

Apologies for perpetuating the Great Lie, especially one that paints you unfavourably. I'd obviously failed to take sufficient account of the peculiarly poor taste of the UK publishing industry - an acute failure of empathy on my part - and just assumed that Farthing's lack of availability must have been result of a Grand Conspiracy of one sort or another...