Mundie Moms

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Clockwork Princess: Cassie's Answers to Fan Questions



Over the past couple of weeks Cassie has been answering a lot of fan questions regarding Clockwork Princess on her tumblr. I've complied a list of those questions and her answers here, and I'll continue to add to this list when she posts more. *I'm having some blogger issues, please ignore any weird text, coding, and coloring issues*
  • In regards to Jem becoming Brother Zachariah, Cassie had this to say
    Or maybe I just want you to think that. :) Sometimes theories get so entrenched they become fancanon. (Blaise Zabini is a girl! - whoops, no. Or sometimes they’re right — Snape loved Lily! Who’d a thought?) 
    I can think of quite a few characters who only loved two people. :) Anyway, you’ll find out Zach’s identity eventually, if not in CP than in CoHF.
  • About the placements of the family trees being printed in the first editions of Clockwork Princess, Cassie said
When I say “printed on the inside of the cover” I mean you literally have to take the book jacket off the book and look on the reverse side to find it. You will have to go out of your way to look at it — you can’t possibly look at it by accident — and if you are determined to spoiler yourself, you can, but you will be sorry, because you will be mightily confused rather than illuminated. :)
Hi Cassie! Since the past books have additional special content from Barnes & Noble, will Clockwork Princess have other special content other than the family tree? I hope you could answer this so that I can order from either Amazon/B&N. Thank you! :) 
— the-four-to-my-six
Nope. No other special content, and nothing specific to any store! This is so people don’t have to worry about buying more than one copy to get the special content.
  • On if we'll being see Jessamine in Clockwork Princess, Cassie said
Absolutely, you will see Jessamine again.
  • On why can't all the copies of Clockwork Princess contain the family trees outside the first editions, Cassie replied:
Publishers put special things in first editions to reward really passionate fans, the kind who will run out and buy the book the first week or so that it’s out, the kind of readers who’ve been waiting for the next book with bated breath. The special edition doesn’t cost any more, it’s not hard to get hold of, all you have to have is a desire to read the story as soon as you can. It’s a way for them to say, “Hey, passionate readers, we acknowledge you and we want to give you something cool.”
  • About whether or not those who pre-order 1st editions in the UK, Cassie replied,
You don’t need to pre-order an American copy if you’re in the UK. Or Ireland. Or South Africa. Or Australia. Or New Zealand. Your publisher of Shadowhunter books, Walker books, is putting the family tree in all their first editions. You are in exactly the same situation as everyone in North America. Pre-ordering is still the best way to make sure you get the first edition, either online or in a store.
So all first copies will have the family tree in it? No matter where you buy it? — jacesgoldeneyes
All first editions in English
“I really understand that, but in Hungary, there’s no way to get the first edition, ‘casue CoLS aren’t in the bookstores yet, and it’s so disappointing.”
Well, I called Big Ben Books in Prague (my favorite English language bookstore there) and asked if they could order in a first edition of Clockwork Princess and they said sure. So if you lived in Prague, you could just walk over and get it. Outside big cities, it’s more difficult, but just because Amazon or Book Depository take longer to deliver there doesn’t mean they’re not dispatching a first edition.
It would be nice if simultaneous publication all over the globe was possible, and on occasion it is (Harry Potter tended to come out everywhere at the same time, but Harry Potter was a global phenomenon — this sort of thing costs publishers massive amounts of money). I assume CoLS isn’t in the bookstores in Hungary in Hungarian. (I mean it probably isn’t there in English much either, except, again, in English language bookstores, because it wouldn’t be considered that there would be a big demand for the English version. But again, you could order the English one. What bookstores have on the shelves does not represent everything they could ever get in.) 
The world has become a big global economy and that includes the book business, as well. But the antiquated systems of distribution and translation and foreign rights haven’t caught up yet. Hopefully they will: in the meantime, if you’re in an non-English speaking country you do either have to wait or jump through more hoops to get a first edition: I wish it wasn’t so, but it is.
  • When asked about reading the family tree before reading or after reading Clockwork Princess, Cassie said this:
Not only will it be horribly spoilery, it will also be confusing.
Remember that the family tree is created to be a “found object.” It tells you what someone making the family tree would know to be officially true. That doesn’t mean it is the actual truth. For instance, say Charlotte cheated madly on Henry with Nate. Say the baby she is having is Nate’s*. It would be listed on the family tree as hers and Henry’s, because no one knows that it actually isn’t except for Charlotte and the reader if you actually read to the end of the book
So looking at the family tree first is not just a bad idea because it is spoilery, but a bad idea because it is misleading. (The same can be said for reading the last page first. I did that once and assumed a character lived through the book, only to find out when I actually read the thing that the end was a hallucination another character was having, and the first character was dead.)
Books are meant to be read in order. If something is stuck in the back it is a safe bet you are not supposed to read it before the beginning of the book. Don’t do it.
*I use this as an example because it is silly.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for the incite and the great postings again!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dammit! Just realised the paperbacks don't have dust jackets and that's what gets released in NZ first. Not that I really wanted hardcover anyway but I do want the tree. Oh well.

    ReplyDelete

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