Finishing Up

Almost finished with Al Spoo's Pearly Mussels of Pennsylvania. Waiting for the CIP data block, need to do the cover next week.

Also, finishing up Philip Henry Gosse's A Year at the Shore, which will be a small-size paperback with full color plates (36 of them) illustrated by Gosse (in 1870). The book is about the various small marine life that can be found along the coast of Britain. Great images, and Gosse's passionate descriptions of fascinating sea life.

Something To Look Forward To (In 2019)

Sad to say, but I've postponed my edition of Gould's Case for the Sea-Serpent due to copyright reasons. While going over a last-minute consideration, I ran across mention that when a book is published outside the US more than 30 days before the US edition, the copyright policy must follow the first country's rules. Drat it all. The US edition was published 4 years after the UK edition, with no substantial changes as far as I know. This means my edition can't be published until 2019. (Unless I can track down and make arrangements with the Gould estate; unlikely, but I'll make inquiries.) [To the lucky few who ordered copies prior to my cancellation, you've got a very, very limited edition.] What's killing me is there is a Singing Tree reprint from the 1960s or so, and I'm pretty sure they considered the text public domain. But... that's the way it goes.

Case for the Sea-Serpent

Sent to the printer... Here's the wraparound, nothing fancy, same basic design (and same size) as my Oudemans and Lee sea serpent reprints.

UK vs US Copyright

I'm trying to finish up my reprint of Gould's Case for the Sea-Serpent this evening, and after a little investigation realized that I'll only be able to offer US distribution of the title, rather than US/UK as with most of my books. UK copyright is life of author + 70 years, which means this book won't be public domain in the UK until 2018, another ten years. Because it had a US printing in 1934, without copyright renewal, it is public domain here. While my UK sales are trifling, I was expecting to sell at least a few copies over there, so this is a little annoying, but not much I can do about it. (Technically, my books would be "published" in the US, and "printed" in the UK, but I'm too uncertain of legal liability in this instance to take a chance.)

Gould's Loch Ness book would also have the same copyright period in the UK, but it never had a US printing (as far as I know). So, in the US, it won't be in the public domain until 2029, 95 years after publication in the UK. So, we won't be seeing reprints of those (legal ones, at least), unless the Gould estate gives permission.

Similarly, I would love to reprint Gandar-Dower's The Spotted Lion, but it's not in the public domain, and I have no idea how to get hold of his estate.