Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 09:38:30 -0400
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Judging a book by...
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

> twhite8 at cox.net 8/29/2005 11:59:58 PM >>>
>Steve Smith wrote:

>>  I remember talking to Kelly about these. He signed a contract for
>>  70-some covers -- and *then* he discovered that the book quality
>was
>>  uniformly ghodawful. He actually read the first few, but he
quickly
>>  settled on reading only enough to get an idea of one of the main
>>  characters, and then putting it against an abstract or semi-
>abstract
>>  background.
>>
>>  "Seeds of Change", by Tom Monteleone, Laser Books #0, was the
>only
>>  book I know that was printed in a "limited edition" of 250,000.
For
>>  years, it was the bane of used SF dealers and buyers, as you'd
>>  usually find at least one full shelf of them at a used book
dealer.
>>  I think I bounced my copy off a wall somewhere around page 2.
>
>It was originally a promotional giveaway -- a *free* book.  Tons of
>them
>were dumped on freebie tables at Worldcons in the '70s.  Since Tom
>had
>signed a standard contract guarateeing royalties (ahahaha), and
>there
>were no sales to generate royalties, they had to promise him the
>average
>of the next six titles.  But I don't believe that even so he "earned
>out" the advance.

I believe Tom (or perhaps Powers?) said that their book was edited
using a dull meat cleaver...

& yes, vast quatities of the book were everywhere in fandom back then.
Everywhere.

>
>Laser Books were the brainchild of Roger Elwood, demon anthologist
>of
>the '70s.  He sold the idea to Harlequin, the romance publishers in
>Canada.  But Roger was psychotic, and he self-destructed that
>relationship.  I helped.  I forwarded his correspondence with me to
>Harlequin's president.  Throw in sales which were never what
>Elwood had
>led them to expect, and the line perished within a couple of years.
>
>A few of them may be worth having.  R(ay) Faraday Nelson was
>proud of his.

There are early works by Tim Powers, a pseudonymous by Dean Koontz, and
a few others.  Here's an incomplete list:
http://www.iblist.com/series1415.htm - odd, I can't seem to find a
complete list online.... a little more info:
http://www.massmedia.com/~mikeb/rcb/#66.  For the dreadfully curious, if
you go to http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchEntry and a search
with Laser Books in the publisher field you can see what sort of pricing
- and authors - there are.

Here's a decent entry on Elwood:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Elwood .  Note the number of
anthologies in 1973 and 1974.  I think Ernest can appreciate those
numbers <g>.

He was quite a powerhouse in his day...  I suspect by shear volume he
published some good stuff.

mjw

>
>--Ted White