Author Forewords in Newer Editions

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Desert Kris

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I've always enjoyed the forewards and afterwards when they are provided. They show a bit more personal information about his technique, work ethic, and 'where he gets his ideas'. They also expose us to the business side of his world as well. Not necessary for the stories themselves but fun background stuff!

Agreed, they are definitely great. I was glad to learn about his thoughts about The Gunslinger, and glad (and slightly disconcerted) to learn about how he revised The Gunslinger. That foreward was useful for me, because it suggested to me that I wanted to get a hold of an earlier edition of The Gunslinger...so I did. I ended up reading the revised edition of The Gunslinger, but when I finish The Dark Tower series I'll then go back and read the earlier edition of The Gunslinger. I felt disconcerted that the newest edition of The Gunslinger doesn't have the insight that I would have wanted to have, to track down an older edition. The twenty-page foreward to The Night Shift was daunting, but ended up being a joy to read. The Forewards and Afterwards have become part of the Stephen King experience for me, an extension of On Writing in a way. I feel like something is lost if newer printings of the books drop them.

I would like to see a book that is a collection of Stephen's Forewords and Afterwords that were (and are) in his books plus all the ones he's done in other author's books and anthologies (I've come across quite a few of these over the years). I think that would make an interesting collection. It might be a massive collection because there are probably a lot more of them than I'm aware of. :) If there is room, this collection could also include some of his non fiction pieces that he has written for magazines.

I think I could go for that, too. I've seen a book much like you are describing that was a compilation of Neil Gaiman introductions, and it was a pretty decent length; about 350-400 pages at trade paperback size, called The View From Cheap Seats. They could totally do something similar for Stephen King introductions and so forth. I imagine his non-fiction articles might have to have their own separate volume or volumes.
 

Moderator

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Possible that some of the forewords and/or afterwords contained song lyrics?
And the publishers couldn't include them in editions printed later?
You may have been onto something after all. I"m going through emails and old files to see what can be trashed and what needs to be archived and came across an exchange from 2015 in which a number of song references and the author's note were instructed to be cut from the reprint of one particular title (which shall remain nameless) because it was considered more of a hassle than it was worth monetarily to include them.
 

wolfphoenix

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You may have been onto something after all. I"m going through emails and old files to see what can be trashed and what needs to be archived and came across an exchange from 2015 in which a number of song references and the author's note were instructed to be cut from the reprint of one particular title (which shall remain nameless) because it was considered more of a hassle than it was worth monetarily to include them.
Well, I just remembered that there was a discussion somewhere about song lyrics being omitted in later editions. Because of royalties? Or something?......seems like I remember Metallica being mentioned at some point. Maybe Notaro might remember.
 

fljoe0

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You may have been onto something after all. I"m going through emails and old files to see what can be trashed and what needs to be archived and came across an exchange from 2015 in which a number of song references and the author's note were instructed to be cut from the reprint of one particular title (which shall remain nameless) because it was considered more of a hassle than it was worth monetarily to include them.

Do rights for lyrics have to be renegotiated with reprints? (Not just Forewords but the books themselves)
 

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Do rights for lyrics have to be renegotiated with reprints? (Not just Forewords but the books themselves)
That's what I'm gathering from the correspondence. It might vary with each song, though. What I have noticed over the years is that it's more often than not the not as famous songwriters that are the most generous with their permissions. In the case of that particular book, the consensus was that they just didn't want to bother even trying to get a renewal of the permissions based on past experiences with how much trouble it could be.
 

fljoe0

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That's what I'm gathering from the correspondence. It might vary with each song, though. What I have noticed over the years is that it's more often than not the not as famous songwriters that are the most generous with their permissions. In the case of that particular book, the consensus was that they just didn't want to bother even trying to get a renewal of the permissions based on past experiences with how much trouble it could be.


I have noticed an issue with music when tv shows are released on dvd. Sometimes the original music has to be cut out of the dvd. I heard Judd Apatow talking about not being able to release Freaks and Geeks for years because of music issues. The show relied heavily on popular music and he didn't want to release it without all of the music intact. For some reason the music was ok on a TV broadcast but not on dvd. They must have to renegotiate music when they release it on a new format. It may work the same with books.
 

Notaro

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Well, I just remembered that there was a discussion somewhere about song lyrics being omitted in later editions. Because of royalties? Or something?......seems like I remember Metallica being mentioned at some point. Maybe Notaro might remember.
Sorry Wolf it's not ringing any bells with me, I do recall reading an interview with Kirk Hammett saying that they got the title Ride The Lightning from a line in The Stand and used it as the title of their second album.