Long-term fantasy

Talking of rights trading, here’s a heart-warming tale of perseverance rewarded. Back in 1982, Paul Collins of ‘Quentaris Chronicles’ fame wrote two kids’ books, The Wizard’s Torment and The Earthborn. Both were bought by a publisher called Parteach. ‘I received contracts (still have them!) and then nothing,’ Paul tells me. A year went by and Collins discovered the publisher had disappeared, so he sent the novels around to other publishers, but no-one wanted them. It was ten years before Cathie Tasker at HarperCollins took on The Wizard’s Torment, then another ten years before Tor in the US picked up The Earthborn. They then published the sequel, The Skyborn. The Hiveborn, third and final in ‘The Earthborn Wars’ trilogy, finally came out last month from Bohemian Ink. ‘Twenty years in the making, and the books have received my best reviews,’ says Collins. The moral of his story? ‘Persistence often wins through.’