Book Collection: herbertwest

[Meagan J]

Nice additions! It looks like you have been having some good luck getting your books signed.

[herbertwest]

Thanks !

[herbertwest]

Recieved a signed copy of a book that will be available in 2 weeks. Recieved it directly from the author.
The next book from the author that was on stage with Stephen King in Paris. The literal translation of the title is : "thy will be done", and the dedication says :
"To Jeremy Guerineau, thy will be done, my story the most inspired by Stephen King! Impatient to have your opinion. Friendly."

[goheat]

Nice! Out of curiosity, what kind of books does the author write?

[herbertwest]

Murders / thrillers.
The underlying theme of his previous book was the spreading of violence and of evil within society. What if evil was contagious?

[goheat]

Murders / thrillers.
The underlying theme of his previous book was the spreading of violence and of evil within society. What if evil was contagious?

OK, thanks for the info. My kind of subject matter; I wonder if they'll ever do English versions...

[herbertwest]

It's always complicated, because usually, litterature is english > other languages, and very rarely foreign language > english.
Which means that before even promoting the book, the publisher has translation cost, while for an english novelist, the publisher can already promote with this budget.

I believe that only one of his novels has been translated, and one that is different from his recent work, and definitely not his best one. He once told me that the sales in the UK were OK (like 70 000 copies), but were low for US standards and therefore the publisher decided not to continue.

According to wikipedia, some of his books has been translated to german & italian
His only english book
>>> http://www.amazon.com/The-Cairo-Diar.../dp/033045191X

[goheat]

Yeah, I see the challenge. Makes you wonder how many good foreign authors don't get a shot here like Stieg Larsson did...

[Stockerlone]

Very nice Jeremy, for me it was a surprice to see there are several books from Maxime Chattam in German...

http://www.amazon.de/Maxime-Chattam/e/B0045A22AC

[herbertwest]

I LOVED "Die Teufelsformel" : one of the first I read.
"Bestie" is terribly good, but it's very gory !
"Die Gaia-Hypothese" was quite good too.

I havent read any of his "Other world" books.
His last 2 books published in France were extremely good, and were playing with some underlying themes, but I dont think that they are available yet in german.

[herbertwest]

Yeah, I see the challenge. Makes you wonder how many good foreign authors don't get a shot here like Stieg Larsson did...

THere are also a few other spanish authors that get translated. But then there is a whole hispano-world in the USA.
It sometimes bugs me that publishers would not necessarily give a chance to some foreign authors. I mean, I am a huge fan of Bernard Werber, which is french. Only his first book was translated into english (Empire of the ants), but it isn't his best book.
Why not giving him another chance and publish his other books, WHEN his other books are best sellers in Korea & Russia for instance, where he is considered as a superstar?
For me, if someone is selling millions of copies, it should be intriguing, especially when the author writes about universal themes...

[Merlin1958]

Very nice acquisitions, Jeremy!! A very happy holiday to you and yours as well!!!!

[burial]

According to wikipedia, some of his books has been translated to german & italian
His only english book
>>> http://www.amazon.com/The-Cairo-Diar.../dp/033045191X

there are some polish books too (at least 6 or 7)

[herbertwest]

The french translation of MR MERCEDES will be released on wednesday, and today I recieved the book in two status (the final version and a proof).

I must admit that I am a bit surprised by this proof, printed in january, since I know that the author that was on stage with King in Paris got a proof of the same book by christmas, therefore printed in december. This is the second time that it seem to me that there are two status of french proof.
The other time was a few months ago when someone shared with me a picture of a french proof of JOYLAND that was different from mine as had (what seemed to be a random picture) on it, which, at first I thought was for hiding contact details...




NB: the books are of the same size. It doesnt look that way, but it is just an illusion. However, the height of the book is different, despite the same number of pages. I guess that the final version has a thicker paper...

[zelig]

Very interesting to see a proofs of the French edition.

[Stockerlone]

Very nice Mr. Mercedes proof Jeremy.

In Germany for a longer time the Publishers no more made
SK Leseexemplar/proofs.

[herbertwest]

I hope that the french pubisher will continue to do so. But to be honnest, I was wondering if I was going to get one or not since I've seen a proof copy being recieved before christmas and a proof copy being recieved a few days prior to publication seem kind of pointless to me (but I still want it :p )

[herbertwest]

I follow closely two authors (Steve and the french Bernard Werber). I Have done extensive bibliographic researches about the later : he had been a scientific journalist for over 7 years and I hunted every single essay he wrote at that time. So it's always nice when, every so often I find something that I didnt know from him (short stories, essays, excerpts...)

Last week I found, accidentally, an advertising on which I couldnt help but notice that it was mentionning a pre-publication of his first graphic novel in a french magazine. So I couldnt help by hunting those, today, at the french national library. In the end, I found the whole graphic novel (45 pages), published 1 page per day, a few months prior to the actual publication !

I think that this is a sort of "heritage" from Rocky Wood & Justin Brooks bibliographic work and researches that led me to do a similar thing for this author !

[herbertwest]

And after years of searching a 1st / 1st of Bernard Werber's first book, I managed to find one, for less than a tener !

1st print, february 1991, one out of 20,000 printed copies, and quite a very fine copy !
I'll try to get it signed next month !

[The Library Policeman]

Excellent! Congratulations Jeremy.

[zelig]

Congratulations!

[goheat]

Good for you, congrats, Jeremy!

[jonp]

Congratulations Jeremy. I hope you get it signed.

[herbertwest]

I will probably get it signed, eventually. I know the author quite well as I meet him regularly : he invited me a few times at his place to give me some proof copies / loose pages of his books, and chatting a bit.
One thing that i quite like as well, is that he usually doodle his books : usually a character of his books (ants, trees, angels, people, etc)

So I am confident that it's more a question of when, than IF I get it signed

His next book gets release next week, so I will also have that one to get signed !

[Meagan J]

Very cool! I love that some authors are so cool to their fans.