Let’s talk about windowing. [Note: Windowing is the term used for spacing out the release dates of different formats of a book. Hardcover followed by trade or ebook, etc.] Harriet windowed this book, and there’s a lot of misunderstanding about this. People think that we did it for some selfish reason.
No, it wasn’t a selfish reason. The brick‑and‑mortar bookstores were very good to Robert Jordan throughout his career. They are having a hard time now. This was a chance for Robert Jordan to give back to people who had been very good to him for 20 years. That was really the main reason for the windowing.
When I began in this business, which was when dinosaurs roamed the earth, a hardcover would come out and you had to wait a year or more for a cheaper edition to come out. Even now it’s generally more than six months for a paperback to come out after the hardcover. In that context, a window of three months doesn’t seem very onerous. It’s a way of holding out a hand to the bookstores, where you can have book signings and meet other people who like books and, above all, where you can browse. It’s very difficult to browse on the Internet. It’s fine when you know exactly what book you want, but how can you have your eye caught by something in the next aisle that you’d never considered, like maybe a book called Knit for Dummies . “What’s that? I want to go look at that.”
It’s so true. We grew up selling books this way. Sure, there’s a new, wonderful way to reach more people, but we shouldn’t ignore all the things that booksellers have done for us all these years. I understand Harriet’s feelings, and I think it’s wonderful that she cares and wants to support the people who supported us over fourteen books.
And all the people who found it because they thought: “Gee, that cover looks interesting.” Well, when you’re online that opportunity doesn’t quite exist in the same way.
No, you’ve got to look at too many things. You can’t see it by accident, out of the corner of your eye as you walk around.
Exactly.
If you are viewing this on github.io, you can see that this site is open source. Please do not try to improve this page. It is auto-generated by a python script. If you have suggestions for improvements, please start a discussion on the github repo or the Discord.