Random question

[james_davis_nicoll]

Who is the best English-language author without a US publisher?

Comments

[dsrtao]

Christopher Brookmyre. No US publication since... well, several novels ago.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

I'll go with that.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, that's a horrorshow. We had to order various books of his from the UK and donate them to the liberry.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

Best what? Ping pong player?

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Empty set. Without a US publisher, you can't be the best.

(Only half tongue-in-cheek . . .)

Best what? Stylist? Story-teller? Seller? Practitioner of obscure "literature"?

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

And I want to know what "without a publisher" means? Do periodicals count? Backlist in print but no new books forthcoming from US publishers? Without a multi-book deal and thus a more or less guaranteed appearance on the shelves on an annual/biennial basis? Someone who was just dropped?

[dsrtao]

My intuitive understanding is "is writing books, gets them published in other countries, has no current publisher in the US, and none of that is a recent status change".

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Backlist in print but no new books forthcoming from US publishers will do.

I don't care about periodicals.

[nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com]

Ligotti?

[dhole.livejournal.com]

William Shakespeare.

[mayakda.livejournal.com]

It's really hard to answer that question as a regular person in the USA. Just so you know.
Although I did think Jessica Zafra wrote some pretty articles, but I'm biased because I've thought she's cool ever since high school when she was the only girl in uniform pants. If you saw the hideous material our uniforms were made of, you'd understand why wearing them as pants was a really brave thing thing.
http://jessicarulestheuniverse.com/about/

[pyropyga.livejournal.com]

Is it too early for me to fear Ken MacLeod is a candidate for this position?

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Yes.

AIUI Ken's problem is that he sells to Orbit, his US sales are a secondary market ... and his editor, PNH, is chronically over-worked and behind on his reading. (If I was Ken, I'd be clearing my throat and pointedly reminding Patrick that Ken's own editor -- Tim Holman -- now has an office in Manhattan ... but I'm not Ken.)

[pyropyga.livejournal.com]

Better this than him being a qualifying candidate, certainly! I suppose The Night Sessions isn't that deeply overdue on these shores but it sure feels like it should be on the calendar at this point.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Not only are you awaiting The Night Sessions: The Restoration Game is, I believe, on its way into production. (Read an early draft, commented on it.)

[matt-ruff.livejournal.com]

Presumably someone we've never heard of.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Some of us (not me) are in England and Australia and New Zealand and Anglophone Africa and the Anglophone Caribbean, so.

[matt-ruff.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I was including "incredibly talented authors who haven't been published anywhere" in the list of candidates.

[felila.livejournal.com]

What about Vikram Seth? Are his books usually published both in the UK and the US?

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Yep.

[pbprincess.livejournal.com]

Since I've only ever seen Australian publishers' versions of his books here in Canada, I'm going with David Malouf.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Vintage have published most of his stuff here in the US, and George Braziller seem to publish the rest.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Presumably you mean "without a US or Canadian publisher," because you can get the latter, yes?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm specifically interested in authors not published in the US.

[vr-trakowski.livejournal.com]

Margaret Mahy.