H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard . . . Embarrassing Middle Names

H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard

Last night I found two great collections of both Lovecraft and Howard's works.  Both are electronic editions of the collected works of Lovecraft, and the collected Conan stories by Robert E. Howard.  Howard wrote other things, but this was the first time that I had seen all of the Conan stories in a single place.  Normally, they're broken up into separate volumes and at $15 a pop can add up pretty quickly.  Barnes and Noble has a delightful collection of Lovecraft's stuff, and even though it has a beautiful leather cover I can't seem to work up the hutzpah to plop $30 down on it.  On my Kindle, however, each went for less than $3--the Conan collection itself was less than a buck.

So what does that mean, other than that I am a tightwad over really inconsequential things?  First, it's an indictment of the way publishers market and sell their books.  Second, its an interesting meditation on the way in which works of fiction are consumed.  Well, let me clarify that.  It's an interesting meditation on the way in which written works of fiction are consumed.  Both of these works were published in the early twentieth-century.  Some of Lovecraft's works are old enough to have passed into the public domain (though I think Miskatonic or Arkham keeps the copyright alive).  Conan is a part of the modern gestalt.

On some levels, this means that Cthulhu and Conan belong to the public in a way that most modern writers have a hard time wrapping their head around.  J.K. Rowling (another author known only by her last name.  I'm sensing a theme) understands this, and is probably a good example of a modern author who has allowed the public to both consume and take ownership of her works.  She knew when to let go.  George Lucas (no mysterious middle initial here) is probably the best example of the opposite way of going about it.  He maintains such tight control that his fans have actively begun working against him

Both of these phenomena converge in a hazy middle ground between the authorial instinct to conserve their creation, and the consumers' instinct to embrace and propagate beloved story.  This comes out in the medium itself.  At least within publishing, there are certain overhead costs that simply must be paid.  Printing, storage, and shipping are the few that comes easiest to mind, but certainly they are not alone.

I remember hearing with almost rapturous delight about the coming age of the e-book.  Certainly if we are not already in it, we can just see it over the horizon.  And it casts a long shadow indeed.  We were told to expect that publishers would slash their prices, and that the heady forces of the free market would drive prices to unfathomably low levels.  Strangely, that never occurred.

Maybe it wasn't so strange, after all, though.  Maybe it's something like the George Lucas phenomenon.  Is it possible that publishers are holding on too tightly?  I have a feeling it's more than possible, it's probable that the publishers are squeezing their fists.  And we don't need Princess Leia to tell us that tighter they close it, the more star-systems will slip through their fingers.  Or book sales.  You get the point.

Don't get me wrong.  Unrestricted consumerism never solved any problems, either.  Letting the horses have a free reign is nice for a weary horse, but dropping the reigns entirely means you'll probably plummet over a edge cliff when something spooks them.  Market forces are a lot like that, and publishers need to figure out that lowering prices (but not slashing them) is the best way to bring back jaded and weary consumers.  The stunning success of Fifty Shades of Gray (I feel a little filthy dignifying them with italics) proves that point.  Initially published entirely online, they were adopted as print editions to satisfy the decreasing, but still substantial, niche of readers who will only partake in masses of battered wood pulp splattered with toxic chemicals.

I have to admit, I privilege the printed book over the electronic.  But gradually, as the ease of consumption increases, I have turned much more readily to electronic editions.  Which makes me suspect that books aren't dying, just printed books.

What do you think?  Like some E?  E-book that is.  Let me know in the comments.






As a short addendum.  It was really hard finding a picture of anything relating to Robert E. Howard and Lovecraft in the same picture.  How great would a painting of Conan vs. Yog-sothoth be?