Here's another item from the archives, a post from twenty-five years ago this month, in which Piper fan Michael Walsh tells us a bit about how Ace -- now Penguin Random House -- came to own Piper's estate (at least before much of it has since come into the public domain). --- Subject: Piper Estate Information From: Michael Walsh Date: Fri, 5 Sep 1997 09:12:31 -0400 Since this question has been raised, let me try to address it based upon what I know from my dealings in my reprinting of _Murder In The Gunroom_. During the Jim Baen reign at Ace, he (or more than likely corporate lawyers) ascertained that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was acting as caretaker of the Piper literary estate. Piper died without will or any close relatives. Apparently the Commonwealth will "sell off" estates if approached with a reasonable offer. Ace made an offer, Ace now owns the literary estate. Lock, stock, and barrel. Capitalism at work. So, to do my reprint of _Murder_ I had to pay Ace royality money. The question immediately comes up: Well, since they don't have to pay anyone for the rights, why don't they reprint Piper. The following is pure speculation, but based on many years of following the industry. And the answer is: Publishing has changed alot. More than likely a Piper reprint series would make money, but _not enough_ money to contribute to the bottom line. Hence, the best answer, currently, are the small presses. Myself, I'd love to reprint more Piper. I may yet approach Ace about such by the end of the year (sorry, but _now_ is not a good time, being up to my ears in a 10 month late reissue of the Lensmen series...) Michael J Walsh --- Michael's original message is available here: https://web.archive.org/web/20080310045615/http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind9709&L=piper-l&T=0&F=&S=&P=644 Cheers, David -- "It is not . . . the business of an author of fiction to improve or inspire or educate his reader, or to save the world from fascism, communism, racism, capitalism, socialism, or anything else. [The author's] main objective is to purvey entertainment of the sort his reader wants. If he has done this, by writing interestingly about interesting people, human or otherwise, doing interesting things, he has discharged his duty and earned his check." - H. Beam Piper, "Double: Bill Symposium" interview
