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Have you all seen the latest addition to the 'What's New' page?
"Concerned that many US readers are purchasing UK copies over the internet, Fforde has added a bonus chapter to the USA edition of The Well of Lost Plots."
I can't decide whether to say "Hoorah, more Ffordean text!", and order a copy of the USA edition to go with the UK edition that I've already got, or to denounce this measure as "excessive commercialism" (and unfair to the many UK readers who've already bought the UK edition...) and stalk away from Jasper's works in a huff...
"Mutter, mutter, mutter..."
Maybe his publishers made him do it?
And what about the Ozzian, NZ and Canadian editions? How do they fit into this situation?
Makes no difference to me. I need to buy the US version anyway to make my set match. Besides, the US readers have to wait the longest to read the book. Who can blame us for not being able to wait?
Simon: Sources inform me that "Hodder hold the quaintly titled 'Commonwealth rights' and Penguin just do US." Hence Oz, NZ and Canada get the same version as we do in Blighty. (I assume.)
Jon: Where are you ? Are you in NZ yet ? (Sorry I've been on hols for a bit and not enough time to read all your posts. I'm sure it must say somewhere.)
There's also the huge spoiler that Intrigue mentioned. So if you've not read WOLP yet, don't look at "What's New"
Except that the spoiler has now gone. :-)
Rob said; Jon: Where are you ? Are you in NZ yet ? (Sorry I've been on hols for a bit and not enough time to read all your posts. I'm sure it must say somewhere.)
I'm still here. As in t'UK; we don't fly out until the 28th of August, and come back on the 16th of September.
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I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty
Jon _
I've just looked at the WOLp Special Features section (again), and in my opinion its contents don't really seem to match the description that was given for this "bonus chapter" & other added material...
So, will the kiwis be getting the cover's Ozzian version or its UK one?
Putting extra stuff in the American edition to encourage Americans to wait for it, is most unfair on readers elsewhere. It's not our fault that the Americans were so keen to read Jasper's books that they ordered from over here. If Penguin don't want to lose out on US sales, they should have released it much earlier over there, instead of making you wait.
Yep basically means US readers get frustrated twice, once by having to wait for Amazon UK to send it over and once by having to buy another copy once the US version's published if you want to see the new chapter, and everyone outside the US gets frustrated too, because, having already bought the UK edition, if we want to see the new stuff we all have to get a copy of the US edition... does seem a bit unfair.
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If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
It's probably a plot between the two publishers to make more money. We in the US buy the UK edition because we can't wait. Then, they release the new US version with an extra chapter so we have to buy that as well.
Those of you on the other side of the pond, buy it when it comes out but when you find out that we(in the US) get something you didn't, you don't want to be outdone so you buy ours.
to tell the truth, i'm not worried about which edition comes to NZ, or if it has extras, just so long as it *gets*here.
i've got my name down at my local bookstore, but as yet no word from them, *sigh*.