It all comes round again -- Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary

[pameladean]

David and I have made up Blaisdell Press to reissue some of my backlist and ultimately publish Going North. We are beginning with my 1998 novel Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary, which got caught in the collapse of the mass-market distribution system and sold so badly that when Firebird bought up the rest of my backlist, buying this unfortunate book was not something they wanted to undertake.

It is an odd book but I love it a lot. It has astronomy and sisters and true friends and poetry and many female characters and a cat and books and quotations and success and failure and Shakespeare. I don't suppose that last part surprises anybody.

It will be available in a POD trade paperback from CreateSpace, as a Kindle book from Amazon, and as an e-book from Smashwords.

Things are supposed to all go live on March 1, but it looks like you can do pre-orders now. Here's the link:

http://dd-b.net/blaisdellpress/

David will be doing some blog posts about the process of scanning the text and designing the cover and interior, and I'll link to those when they go up.

I am so excited that any attempt at expressing myself other than a level recitation of the facts makes me incoherent, so I'll stop now.

If LJ will permit, here's an image of the cover:

Comments

[aynatonal.livejournal.com]

Hooray! I have the trade paperback edition on my bookshelf, but I'd love to have it on my Kindle, too. Pre-ordering now!

[pameladean]

Yay, and thank you!

P.

[evil_plotbunny]

Is there a chance of a Nook edition in the near future? Also YAY!

[pameladean]

I am informed that the Smashwords package should include a version for the Nook, but the link isn't up yet.

P.

[biblio-tech.livejournal.com]

Great cover. I love the book, too. May this new venture be all that you hope for!

[pameladean]

Thank you. I feel the cover came out unexpectedly well, and keep staring at it.

P.

[redbird]

Oh, excellent.

[pameladean]

8-)

P.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

ohh! i have that book from its original printing (they forgot to tell me the market was collapsing) and i love it. glad it'll be back in print!

[pameladean]

Hee. It was not the market, just the old distribution system for mass-market paperbacks. JG&R should have had a mass-market paperback edition -- trade paperbacks were kind of strange then and viewed with suspicion and alarm in some quarters -- but when the distribution system collapsed and there were no longer hundreds and hundreds of very knowledgeable salespeople with small areas who knew in detail what book buyers within the areas would like, doing a mass-market paperback edition was much riskier and became for a time very fraught. So a midlist author like me, at that particular time, just didn't get one.

P.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Lovely cover!

And Going North coming out? Woohoo!

[pameladean]

Not immediately -- I still have to revise it -- but not really indefinitely, either.

P.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

When I signed up a few months ago to take a beginner ballet class for adults of all shapes, I was wondering whether I would find any kindred spirits. Then one week I got there early and one of the other students was sitting on the floor reading a used-book-store copy of Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary.

[pameladean]

Oh, that's a great story.

I hope they really were a kindred spirit, but even the sight at the beginning must have been encouraging.

P.

[brooksmoses]

Squee! Actual physical book ordered -- and, rather coincidentally, looks like it will arrive on March 1st, but only because I chose cheap shipping; the more expensive shipping would have gotten it here a week sooner.

[pameladean]

Thank you! Yes, David was remarking on the timing of physical-book delivery with amusement -- we ordered some copies for ourselves.

P.

[belegwen.livejournal.com]

So excited! I read it in high school as a library copy and haven't been able to find it since.

[pameladean]

Oh, good, it's people like you I was hoping to provide with their own copy, if they wanted it.

P.

[will shetterly (from livejournal.com)]

Get it into Nook/Barnes and Noble too. Their system is very easy to deal with, maybe ten minutes once you've got an account. We let Smashwords deal with everyone except B&N and Amazon.

[pameladean]

Does Smashwords not deal with B&N?

P.

[red-queen.livejournal.com]

I have it in hard cover; i quite liked yhat book! Congrats on getting it back out there!

[pameladean]

Thanks! I really liked the Tor cover and book design, but it was just an unlucky book.

P.

[kazoogrrl.livejournal.com]

Excellent news! I reread it about once a year, I'll pick up another copy so I have a loaner to pass around my friends.

[pameladean]

Excellent! I love it when people reread my books.

P.

[rosefox]

Congratulations! That's a splendid cover.

FYI, PW happily reviews reprints of books that we didn't review in their first incarnations. :)

[pameladean]

Alas, PW did review it; the review, or much of it, is on Amazon. It's fine, but no star. I think we forgot to investigate if we could quote it or needed permission or what, and just ended up with no back matter on the book at all.

P.

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

Hurray! I have one of the 1998 copies, but I'll be happy to request that my two local library systems buy copies. (One has no catalog listing; the other says "no local holdings," which means lost or damaged/deaccessioned.)

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Ooh, good idea! Ah, my library system already has two hardcovers on shelves.

Hooray hooray! So glad that you're getting your books available again. As others have said, it'll now be easier to hand them to people we know will like them. HAPPY DANCE!

[eub.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to see it, and I hope it sells creditably in this new world, and paves the way for your rulership. I have several of the book hoarded, but I would like an ebook too.

[pameladean]

Lots of people would, and I'm so glad one is finally being provided.

P.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

O happy happy day! (though I do, in fact, have a copy of the original hardback, obtained at the now defunct Fantasy Centre in Holloway Road.) But so great that it will be available.

[pameladean]

I am quite pleased with anybody who has a copy of the first edition. There just aren't a lot of you -- but a large percentage read my LJ. Not too surprising, really.

P.

[rolypolypony.livejournal.com]

SO excited! I have an ex-library discard of it that I refuse to let anyone borrow from me for fear of never getting it back, which has been at war with my desire to make people read it because I love it so much! NOW I CAN GIFT COPIES AT WILL!! :)

As I think I've mentioned elsewhere, my telescope is named Gentian, after the book :)

[pameladean]

Yes, I remember, it's a rare compliment and pleased me enormously.

P.

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

Hooray! And what a lovely cover. I have my paperback from the original printing, but I'm so glad that this book will be more widely available.

[pameladean]

Thanks! Nobody who has one should feel obliged to buy another one.

P.

[herefox.livejournal.com]

Yay! I quite like this book and, although I still have my copy, I'll have to gift it to a few people.

[pameladean]

*rubs hands together, cackles evilly*

Um, I mean, thank you, that's a great idea.

P.

[kore]

This is wonderful news! I LOVE JG&R and really want it as an ebook.

[pameladean]

Excellent!

P.

[lcohen]

i love this book, but i own this book (and things are a little tight after my sudden boiler repair). however, i am all in on Going North, as soon as it appears! what a great idea to do this!

[pameladean]

Honestly, if you have a copy there is really no obligation to buy another one! With luck you'll have recovered from the boiler incident before GN comes out.

P.

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

That's a very pretty cover!

Since the subject has come up recently, might you republish The Fortunate Fall?

[pameladean]

We had not contemplated it. One thing at at time, I think.

P.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

Oh, lovely!

[pameladean]

Thanks!

P.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

This is great news. I know at least two people who really ought to receive Juniper, Gentian and Rosemary as a gift and now I can make that happen. I've never been willing to lend out my copy because of not being able to replace it.

(I'm very pleased to hear about Going North, too. So exciting!)

[pameladean]

Oh, good. I did want to make it substantially less rare.

P.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

How beautiful the cover for Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary is. I'm so glad you and he have decided on reissuing! Now they need never go out of print.

[elianarus.livejournal.com]

This is one of the most exciting things (to me) about ebooks. ...and every time a beloved oop book is republished in ebook form I feel as if a friend has been saved from extinction.