Notice from Michael Walsh

October 1998 Update

Triplanetary and First Lensman will be going back to press for 3rd prinitings and the final four are currently at the printer with a due date sometime mid November (the printers' scheduling department is slipping the books into slack time on the presses so they do not have an exact due date at this point). Print runs for the final four will be 5000 copies each. and I will probably be scheduling a second printing within the week due to unbelievable book wholesaler orders.

March 1998 Update

• John Clute's concluding essay arrived so the remaining four will be going into production as soon as possible. All four will be published at once.
• The down side is that the person who has been doing the copyediting on the Clute essay has recently started a new job.
• I have hopes of a pub date around May of 98.
• Lastly, I am way, way, way behind in getting books out to prepaid folks. Even to stores. Quite frankly, even though I knew these would be popular books, I did not expect the sheer volume of letters, emails, and phone calls (around 10 per day). I had initially planned a 1000 copy run of the first two titles. Printrun was 2,500. Printrun for the remaining four could be even larger.

November, 1997 -- The First Books are Here

• After long last, Triplanetary and First Lensman are here. The Barnes & Noble order was shipped direct from the printer to the distributor.
• As for the remaining four; John Clute is busily scribbling away on the foreword for the remaining four. Once that is received (thankfully he has email), I expect a six to seven week turnaround time before finished books show up.

Original Plans

Thank you for your interest in the forthcoming Lensmen reprints from Old Earth Books. Because of the volume of inquiries received, I have written this in the hope it answers most of your questions.

• The series will be trade paperback reproductions of the Fantasy Press editions of 40+ years ago. All of the art, black & white interior and the color covers, will be reproduced. Triplanetary should be out by late March 1997, with the remainder following on a regular basis, all to be finished by the 1997 Worldcon in San Antonio, TX.
• Cost: each book will retail for between $15.00 and $16.00 each. Special advance purchase price is $100, which will get you each book shipped to you and at the conclusion of the series a slipcase will manufactured and also shipped to you -- with no shipping charges, all part of the $100. This offer will be available until the publication of Children of the Lens, when the order for the slipcases will be sent in.
• Payment. Currently I am unable to accept credit cards for payment. Payment by money order or check, payable in US dollars on a US bank, should be sent to: Old Earth Books, P.O. Box 19951, Baltimore, MD 21211-0951.

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