TERRY PRATCHETT NOTES ON THE CHECKLIST

NOTES ON THE CHECKLIST
AND OTHER MATTERS

This list contains all the known publications connected with the Terry Pratchett's novels issued to date, with ISBNs as well as publishers' own reference numbers, names of illustrators where used, publication dates, numbers of copies in each first printing (and where known the number of reprints to date), as well as print quantities of the only true rarities now, the bound book proofs, of which there were rarely more than 200. These figures will follow the quantity of the first printing. Some publishers of translations also list the name of the editor whose job it is to compare the translation with the original text to ensure accuracy, but I have not included these names, including only that of the translator/s. Thanks to the help of the overseas publishers the information I have been able to give is in many cases considerable, much more than I expected to get and I hope in due course to complete the gaps that remain. There may have been some pirated publications that are unknown to me.

In Latin countries death is feminine, a complication that most early translators did not bother to mention to the author, in spite of contracts that require ‘faithful and accurate’ translations, so Ysabell’s ‘father’ became ‘Mama’ in numerous languages. There was no problem in Spanish and other wiser translators kept him as a male, but other editions are being changed. This mistake is not important in the first three novels, but by Mort, there’s a problem, which by the time of Reaper Man becomes impossible. Corrections are being made.

BCA (Book Club Associates) initially sold copies of the standard Discworld editions with the price cut off the jackets. As the series became more popular, there were special printings, originally produced by Gollancz for BCA that were identical with the trade editions except for the absence of the Gollancz imprint, and most recently, starting with Men at Arms, produced in a smaller format by BCA (19.7 x 12.8cm - 7¾"x 5"), with their imprint and reference number, but no ISBN. These were normally issued three, four or six months after publication of the trade edition.

As with BCA's editions, the American Science Fiction Book Club's copies do not have their own ISBNs, but they normally include one on the title verso, which may be that of the US paperback, or of the Gollancz edition, or in the case of The Light Fantastic, Colin Smythe Ltd's: the Club's own reference number appears in the bottom right hand corner of the back cover, nowhere else. Apart from The Colour of Magic, and until the Discworld novels started being published by HarperCollins, the only American hardcover editions of the early Discworld titles were those issued by the book club. Not only for these but for some of the HarperCollins published titles, the Club used their own artists to produce the cover illustrations. As it is not their policy to give the printing history on the title versos of their club editions, the collector has no idea whether the copy in their hand is from the first or a later printing, however I think they have a general rule to use a superior binding for the first one. The reprints will just have paper-covered boards with printed spine lettering, while the first will have a different material used on the spine, and be blocked in gold. The entries give the date the books were listed as Selections, and it was usual for the book to arrive from the printers some weeks before. Where still known to the Book Club, these dates have been given. Unfortunately, such information for out-of-print books is no longer available.

I have also included details of Terry's short stories, all commercial productions of Discworldiana, excluding for the moment models, figurines, jewellery and t-shirts. I have listed videos, audio-tapes, posters, maps, jigsaws, postcards, calendars, diaries, and fanzines.

For some time I put all the translations only in their original alphabets, Cyrillic, Greek, or whatever, but in the interests of readability for those who can only read the Roman alphabet, I have also added Romanizations of the titles, using the Library of Congress' ALA-LC Romanization Tables: Transliteration Schemes for Non-Roman Scripts (1997), and if I've made any mistakes, please let me know. When the publishers themselves have a preferred transliteration - for example, what the Tables would transcribe as 'Arkhont', the publishers use 'Arhont' - I have followed the publisher's preference. Transliterations of Japanese titles have yet to be added although I do have the translators' names. Japanese publishers now seem to give the name of their company presidents before the company on their copyright pages so I have added them to this list and show them as follows 'H.Kawaguchi/Sanyusha.

The German publisher Heyne has two paperback series, which have their own numbering system apart from ISBNs, the Fantasy series which has an 06 prefix, and the the general 'Allgemeine Reihe' series with a prefix 01. Terry's books were first published in the 06 series, but some have since also appeared in the 01 series. The quantity of a title bought by a bookseller is influenced by the series in which it appears as on that basis they make an educated guess as to how many they are likely to sell.

Few of Terry's books turn up on the second-hand market in Germany. As Robert Schekulin of the UFO Buchhandlung in Freiburg wrote to me: 'a curious thing, by the way. In the genre of fantasy, which is the absolutely bestselling one in our bookshop (specializing in SF, horror, fantasy and crime fiction), TP is the top of the top, our absolutely bestselling author, much better than Tolkien, very much better than all the rest . . . but we nearly never ever get TP's books back from readers to sell them second hand! No chance! That means, all those readers keep their books, all those readers are real fans! (Sorry, I'm no fan, may be just not yet, and I can only shake my head in astonishment).'

I stress that the print quantities given are only those of the first printings, and in no way represent the total sales to date of the editions concerned. For example, the first Corgi printing of The Colour of Magic was 26,000 copies, but their total sales of this title are in excess of three quarters of a million.

Many people are puzzled as to why Josh Kirby's picture credit on many translations is given as Ron Kirby. This is for copyright purposes, as Josh's real name is Ronald William Kirby. The name by which most of his fans know him developed from a fellow student at art school saying he painted like Sir Joshua Reynolds.

As his illustrations predominate on the covers of Terry’s books throughout the world, as a general rule I do not mention the cover illustrator unless it is not by Josh. In some cases the cover designer-illustrator is not mentioned in the book and these will be indicated by ‘anon’ if I’ve not been able to find the information, but I have yet to do this. In the case of some translations, of course, the name may be given, but not knowing the word for designer in that language, I may be missing the information. Later printings of novels may change the design or typography on the cover, but only major variations in the former are noted. Sometimes the entire jacket or cover artwork, not just the illustration, is credited to one person, particularly with the HarperCollins editions, and I have indicated this. With Josh’s death, Paul Kidby has started producing the illustrations for the new adult books, while David Wyatt and others have been producing those for young readers.

Secondhand copies of UK hardcovers can be found with a rubber stamp on the title page - I've seen 'CASSELL' and 'CASSELL PLC' - and this indicates that the book has been returned to the publishers for credit. This may or may not mean that the book is faulty or damaged, but was stamped to ensure that having been sold off cheaply by the publisher it could not be returned to them again as a faulty copy by an unscrupulous bookseller who'd bought it elsewhere at a fraction of the original price. Of course, if the bookseller doesn't return it to the publisher but puts it back on their shelves to sell to an unsuspecting customer, who's to know? And it is quite possible that booksellers themselves don't know this, particularly in the branches of W.H.Smith and Waterstones, for example, where I know that copies marked thus have been bought as new.

In the USA, copies of books can be found with a felt-tip marker, biro or knife slash across the bottom of the pages. This indicates it was a remainder copy of some kind. It may have been a damaged/dirty copy, but on the other hand it can well have been a perfect one that was part of the hardcover stock remaindered when the paperback edition was published, or in the case of a paperback when the publisher decided to dispose of the remaining stock.

Some American publishers use the term 'release date' for the day the books are sent out to the shops for immediate sale, and 'publication date' as the press release date for news stories and reviews; others say a book is 'released' when they mean published: confusing. The dates I give are the publication dates, not those on which the books went on sale, which may be a month or two before. British publishers normally try to prevent copies being sold before the publication date, but with bestselling titles these attempts are doomed to failure unless, for example, the publishers ensure the books are only delivered late on the day before publication.

EAN's are given where the ISBN's are not known or do not exist. (As ISBN means International Standard Book Number it is therefore incorrect to refer to it - as so many do - as an 'ISBN number'. If people feel a desperate need to use the word 'number' then why not 'ISB Number'?)

The sales figures given in this list are the result of a lot of hard work by people in the publishers concerned, and I thank for their help Kirstie Addis (Gollancz), Jane Baird (Het Spectrum), Anke Dethleffsen (Heyne), Marta Higueras Diez (Santillana), Yoshi Iwasaki (Tuttle Mori Agency), Rolf Hajmark Jensen (Borgens), Tizlana Lubich (Salani), Ian Manhire (Transworld - Doubleday and Corgi), Pierre Michaud (L'Atalante), Georg Reuchlein (Goldmann), Torancz Szponder (Rebis), and Vlastimír Talaš (Talpress), Joana Tomova (Prozoretz), Nikos Trantas (Patakis), Jana Vuzeva (Arkhont-V/Vuzev). Other helpers have been anonymous. I am particularly indebted to Kate Hordern and Deborah Brush for their help in getting the information from the overseas publishers.

Extracts may be used without charge but with due acknowledgement and notification.

04/08/05