Endorsed by Stephen King

[needfulthings]

Ill stop back here and add when i can.
for now ill start with
1) im guessing, The girl next door by Jack Ketchum has been mentioned
2) but i doubt , stalking the nightmare by Harlan Ellison has?

[needfulthings]

Spoiler:

[herbertwest]

A few years ago (roughly at the same time that this thread that started : OMG 6 years ago!!!), I worked on a book related to that : recommandations by Stephen King.
I spend a few years working on it, going through hundreds of essays by Steve, to list and quote recommmendations of books, music and movies recommended by Steve. I then spend couple of years or so trying to find agents/publishers for this project, which... never happened. And I still keep track of those in a list, in case that I need to update my project.

I have over a thousand entries, listing blurbs, and quotes from essays by Steve (I have quotes then details of where it was published : any of those were personally checked and I have proofed of those) but I dont really know what to do of it, without infringing copyrights.
Do yous have any ideas, any recommendations? I know that there is a group on Goodreads that sort of does the same. I contacted Marsha about this project a few years ago.
I just dont like that it probably will be on my computers for years without being shared while there are quite lenghtly texts by Steve that may be unknown from collectors...

Would sharing the project for free (but suggesting donations) be infringing copyrights?

[Bev Vincent]

Possibly. The "fair use" doctrine has no absolute answers. I always make sure I have a signed letter of permission before quoting anyone for my books, even when it was a formal interview with the understanding that I would be publishing the conversation. If the book consists mostly of King quotes, some of them long, then you might be treading dangerous waters--not only from King, but from the venues in which the quotes originally appeared if they were, for example, in essays in EW or book reviews in Ny Times, etc.

Not profiting from the work is not a defense in copyright infringement.

[herbertwest]

Hello Bev,
Thanks for your feedback, and I agree with everything you said. As you mentionned, there is nothing really set about "fair use".

It just annoyes me to have this and not being able to do anything with it.
To be absolutely transparent about what this project is and what I tried / didnt try to do :

The main sources of the project are :
- the EW articles : a few years back, I contacted EW and they told me that they would only allow to reprint those for an astronomical sum of money + some editor fees for making sure that this is the accurate text, or something like this :
- Danse Macabre : I contacted the publisher, and if i remember correctly, they gave me a quote of roughly $4,000 per edition (which seem fair to me)
- numerous essays (well over a hundred): I didnt contact every single publisher whose texts are partially quoted as it didn't seem a priority so far as I didnt get the main sources sorted
- blurbs : what about those? are blurbs the property of their writer or the publisher? I believe that they are copyrighted, but it is interesting to note that those are marketing tools often on the back cover, who are often reproduced for free online, for instance on amazon. I guess that this is a grey zone : those texts are copyrighted, but their reproductions are ignored as it promotes the book.
- Obviously : King because everything was written by him.
I contacted Marsha, but without an interest from a publisher, King would not have the time to even look at the project.

I contacted several hundreds agents (as apparently in the english speaking world, agents are highly recommended in the publishing industry), and also directly contacted dozens of publishers which I believe were relevant.
Among the few interesting answers I got, the questions of the copyrights was obviously always an issue. I mentionned the project to King's agent while in Paris who asked me to email him, but no reply (and that doesnt surprise me as it's not a "real" book by Steve).

I think that I would never be able to, legally, do anything with it, despite that there is for instance a group on Goodreads that sort of do a similar thing but obviously not as comprehensive. But it is funny because although the content is free on Goodreads (that have been bought by amazon a few years back), they do give affiliate links to buy those books. So once again it's like promoting the works that are commented...
I gave up on it a few years ago, but... it's still on my laptop..

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

I'm reading this...

[idlewarnings]

Sounds like everything Finders Keepers is not.

[herbertwest]

sarahPinborough's The Death House :
"Moving and totally involving. I couldn't put it down (Stephen King)"
>>> http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Death-Ho.../dp/057509690X

https://twitter.com/orionbooks/statu...src=email&s=11

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

Stephen King on Twitter.
4:26 p.m. - 25 Aug 2015
Don't let the summer go by without checking out THE NICEVILLE TRILOGY, by Carsten Stroud. It's a real rocket ride.

I'm nearly finished book 3. King was spot on.

Edit: Picture added.

[Bev Vincent]

I had a hard time with the first Niceville book, for some reason. I loved The Death House, though.

[herbertwest]

From Subterranean Press' newsletter :

A LONG DECEMBER by Richard Chizmar
"Powerful...I love it...Richard Chizmar writes clean, no-nonsense prose...sets his tales in no-nonsense, middle class neighborhoods I can relate to...and writes terrific stories served with a very large slice of Disquiet Pie." Stephen King.
>>> http://subterraneanpress.com/store/p..._long_december

[herbertwest]

BRIGHTON by Michael Harvey :

"BRIGHTON, by Michael Harvey: Helluva Boston crime novel. Helluva novel, period. If you liked THE DEPARTED, you'll like this." —Stephen King
>>> http://www.michaelharveybooks.com/brighton/

'Turned' into the following blurb on the cover (???)
“BRIGHTON is the f***king bomb! I loved it.” (Stephen King)
>>>> http://www.amazon.com/Brighton-Novel...sap_bc?ie=UTF8

[herbertwest]

THE MARAUDERS, by Tom Cooper

"“The Marauders is so damned good you won’t believe it’s a first novel…and by the time you reach page 20, you won’t care. It’s rollicking, angry, eye-popping, and fall-on-the-floor funny, sometimes in the course of a single scene. The cast is winning, the post-Katrina bayou setting is richly evoked, the dialogue crackles, and the story rolls on a wave of invention. It’s a little Elmore Leonard, a little Charles Portis, and very much its own uniquely American self. Basically, Tom Cooper has written one hell of a novel.” – Stephen King"

>>> https://tomcoopernola.com/the-marauders-a-novel/

[Aronstg]

Has anyone read HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt? The author is going to be in town on Sunday and I'm debating if I should go see him.

Here is the SK endorsement ""Totally, brilliantly original" - Stephen King"

[herbertwest]

"A wicked witch holds an upstate New York town prisoner. This is totally, brilliantly original. (Stephen King)"

[Cwalker]

Has anyone read HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt? The author is going to be in town on Sunday and I'm debating if I should go see him.

Here is the SK endorsement ""Totally, brilliantly original" - Stephen King"

I have just started it, but I also met him in Brookline, MA earlier this month. Great guy, lotta fun, interesting to talk to. Worth at least one visit IMHO. Plus his sig is pretty cool!

[Aronstg]

Has anyone read HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt? The author is going to be in town on Sunday and I'm debating if I should go see him.

Here is the SK endorsement ""Totally, brilliantly original" - Stephen King"

I have just started it, but I also met him in Brookline, MA earlier this month. Great guy, lotta fun, interesting to talk to. Worth at least one visit IMHO. Plus his sig is pretty cool!

Thank you! With that endorsement alone I'll go see him and pick up his book on Sunday.

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

Has anyone read HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt? The author is going to be in town on Sunday and I'm debating if I should go see him.

Here is the SK endorsement ""Totally, brilliantly original" - Stephen King"

I've read it. Well worth King's endorsement.

[biomieg]

Looks like I need to pay more attention to authors from my own country! I haven't read Dutch books in years, maybe I'll pick up an English translation

[Joe315]

They changed the story for the us/UK market so you may want to read the original.

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

They changed the story for the us/UK market so you may want to read the original.

Yes. Here's what the author writes:

The book you’ve just finished is different from the original novel HEX, which appeared in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2013. That book was set in a small Dutch village and ended on a rather different note. As an author, you rarely get the chance to rewrite a book after its publication. But when my agents sold the English language rights to publishers on both sides of the Atlantic, I was suddenly presented with the opportunity to make the original book work in a wholly new environment, with a fresh backstory.

Don’t get me wrong: it’s not that I didn’t like the Dutch setting. I loved the Dutch setting, and I loved the utter Dutchness of the book. Not in the sense that the witch smoked pot or stood behind some Amsterdam red-framed window; I’m talking about the secular nature of small-town Dutch communities and the down-to-earthness of its people. If a sane person sees a disfigured seventeenth-century witch appear in a corner of the living room, he runs for his life. If a Dutch person sees a disfigured seventeenth-century witch appear in a corner of the living room, he hangs a dishcloth over her face, sits on the couch, and reads the paper. And maybe sacrifices a peacock.

But when I see a creative challenge, I take it. And what fun it would be! I had a book that I loved, featuring characters whom I loved, and here I had the opportunity to relive it all without having to face the horrors of a sequel. Instead, I could create an enhanced version—a HEX 2.0, if you will—with new rich and layered details, culturally specific legends and superstitions, all without losing touch with the Dutch elements of the original. Katherine Van Wyler came to the new land on one of Peter Stuyvesant’s early ships. The rural town of Beek became the Dutch trapper’s colony of New Beeck, later renamed Black Spring. The Dutch characters became Americans, but with the down-to-earth quality of the Dutch. The dishcloth stayed. So did the peacock. And the public flogging of minors, a common and fun tradition we celebrate annually in many a small town all over the Netherlands.

The upshot of being Dutch—this is a cliché about us, but it’s true—is that I speak several languages. English almost as fluently as Dutch. That allowed me to not only read but also edit Nancy Forest-Flier’s fantastic translation of the book and find my own voice in English. Working on the book in a language that’s not my mother tongue gave me strong new insights into the plot, the most important of which was about the ending. It had to go. It felt off. There was a much scarier and better way I could end this tale.

So that’s what you’ve just read. The last several chapters, from the moment things pretty much start going downhill for Black Spring, are all new. I wrote them in English, and I had a blast while I was at it. In my opinion, it’s become a better book.

Of course, I hear you wondering: how did the Dutch version end?

I’m not gonna tell. I’m not gonna tell.

Bribe a Dutch person—maybe they will.

[biomieg]

So, maybe I will!

[Br!an]

And maybe we'll have to bribe you to tell us how it ends.

[WeDealInLead]

I have the UK edition of Hex. I think the cover is much nicer and for some reason it was cheaper to get it shipped from the UK than get one locally. Weird.

I wonder if there are any differences in the text.

[Br!an]

I doubt it, other than the difference between British and American English.