I had an email from a US high school teacher this morning, who was just checking whether the Hal Spacejock ebook was a temporary thing, or whether it would be available permanently. Reason being, she'd added Hal to her list of recommended summer ebooks for the students, and she didn't want it vanishing before they could get to it.
The ebook should be permanent, barring multi-million dollar offers from overseas publishers, so I reassured her on that point. However, what made me laugh was the composition of the list (all freely available ebooks, remember). Talk about being the odd man out ...
A Double Barrelled Detective Story by Mark Twain
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Emma by Jane Austen
Hal Spacejock by Simon Haynes
I wish my school teachers had been that cool.
(EDIT: The Hal ebook makes no concessions to US readers, by the way. It's "as published in Australia" with British/Australian spelling, colloquialisms, lifts, boots, colours, pavements and all.)
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
7 comments:
I never thought of that. As much as I'd like to have the books readily available here, I'd hate the changes a US publisher would make. :(
I try not to think about it either. Spread the ebook, and the real original unexpurgated version will live!
boots? What, besides the pairs of things you strap on your feet, are boots?
What you call the trunk on a car.
There's a bit of recurring humour in the novels where Hal often uses a US English word and Clunk will correct him with the British version. (Lift/Elevator in particular)
You know... I wish more books were available Non-Mutilated. Sorry, as "Interesting" as the US is, "Converting" things for the US Market diminishes some of what makes them unique...
Congrats on making such a prestigious list! :)
"I wish more books were available Non-Mutilated"
They're all over ebay.com.au and ebay.co.uk - although the postage is going to hurt.
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