Stu wrote:

Absolutely - that these books continue to get additions (for free) after publication is pretty amazing (and is a testament to the integrity of W & C).

I know other writers offer corrections but additions? I can't recall buying another book and then once in a while finding it being updated with new detail. And now with there being a digital edition those of us who are tech friendly can add in these new updates and keep a version of the work fully up to date.

onthetrail wrote:

....And now with there being a digital edition....

Sadly not authorized for release in the USA.... ?

Urulókë wrote:

onthetrail wrote:

....And now with there being a digital edition....

Sadly not authorized for release in the USA.... ?

It should be.

Urulókë wrote:

onthetrail wrote:

....And now with there being a digital edition....

Sadly not authorized for release in the USA.... ?

I never understand these decisions that leave money on the table for all the parties involved. It's surely in the interests of the work to have it available in as many markets as possible.

Is there no way around this sort of thing by way of a UK friend gifting it to you? Or maybe send your ebook reader on holiday :)

onthetrail wrote:

I never understand these decisions that leave money on the table for all the parties involved. It's surely in the interests of the work to have it available in as many markets as possible.

My assumption, not being involved directly, is that the "money on the table" has to be compared to the "money spent on lawyers negotiating rights distribution and profit sharing" (or something similar, like marketing and loss of sales of physical copies), and sometimes the expected earnings just don't justify the effort involved.

For the second suggestion, the benefits of having a good relationship with the publishers and rights holders outweigh trying to circumvent the rules they have in place... ?

Urulókë wrote:

onthetrail wrote:

I never understand these decisions that leave money on the table for all the parties involved. It's surely in the interests of the work to have it available in as many markets as possible.

My assumption, not being involved directly, is that the "money on the table" has to be compared to the "money spent on lawyers negotiating rights distribution and profit sharing" (or something similar, like marketing and loss of sales of physical copies), and sometimes the expected earnings just don't justify the effort involved.

For the second suggestion, the benefits of having a good relationship with the publishers and rights holders outweigh trying to circumvent the rules they have in place... ?

Thank you for the thoughts. It is a crying shame that so much comes down to lawyers, fees, and negotiations deciding on a potential release of an item that exists already.

As for the second point, I meant a legal method rather than any underhand dealings :)

As for whether there will ever be another update, I doubt it but who knows.

We were surprised to be asked for the new edition of 2017. But the first edition sold out, and as the second edition had to go back to press, our work and HarperCollins' trust seem to have been worthwhile.

There really is no end of learning new things about Tolkien. And annoying as it is to spot or learn of errors, we've had to allow that human writers, editors, and typesetters are fallible (for the Companion and Guide, we wore all those hats), and that the longer and more complicated the work (the Companion and Guide 2017 runs to around 1.3 million words), the greater the chance for error. In fact, not long after we put up our blog post about addenda and corrigenda yesterday, we heard from a reader, going over the Chronology very closely, who had still more corrections to offer!

As for the Lord of the Rings text, readers of our blog will have seen that we've tried to track different typesettings since the 50th anniversary edition of 2004, and have found variations though one would expect the text now to be "fixed" in both senses: corrected, and not changing. But that hasn't been the case. The two HarperCollins editions of 2020 in fact are still another setting, apparently the most accurate at the moment, incorporating most of the corrections we've noted (one still has been overlooked), but with every new typesetting there's a chance of a new glitch.

I hope that W&C are finally given the chance to produce a new 38 volume slipcase box-set compiling Tolkien's letters and unpublished diaries with letters arranged by subject, with a special section devoted to his academic letters and activities.

It wouldn't need quite that many volumes but we would certainly be interested. Other work to do before then, however.

As for "money on the table" and a US digital edition of the Companion and Guide (to which we would have no objections), Houghton Mifflin Harcourt haven't taken up even the printed second edition. Nor have they published the second or third editions of The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, preferring to keep reprinting the first edition (which we used to pay attention to in our Addenda and Corrigenda, but now are concerned only with the 2014 edition, from HarperCollins). All of this seems to be a matter of publisher's choice, influenced by changing conditions in bookselling.

Wayne & Christina

Thanks Wayne & Christina, as always, for your efforts and kindly sharing your thoughts here.

Urulókë wrote:

Thanks Wayne & Christina, as always, for your efforts and kindly sharing your thoughts here.

Absolutely -- now get back to whatever task is holding you back from getting onto that (not quite) 38 volume set!

Stu wrote:

Urulókë wrote:

Thanks Wayne & Christina, as always, for your efforts and kindly sharing your thoughts here.

Absolutely -- now get back to whatever task is holding you back from getting onto that (not quite) 38 volume set!

Hear, hear