Has Anyone Heard Of This Publisher?

I got an email today from "one of the major fantasy and sf publishers in Germany." They want to know if the German rights to The Wobbit are available.

The email is from someone at Piper Fantasy, part of Piper Verlag. I looked at their website, which is entirely in German, so I'm not sure if they actually publish books. If they just provide a service for people that want to self-publish books either in paper or as eBooks (these are usually the publishers I hear from) I already have that covered.

While I would certainly like to become the David Hasselhoff of fantasy writing, I don't want to get too excited about another self-publishing offer. I'm delighted that Piper Fantasy contacted me, but I'm becoming more and more suspicious of publishers that claim to be interested in my book. As Groucho Marx said, "I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members." Except, of course, for ForumShire. (No offense.)

Has anyone heard of this publisher, or does anyone know enough German to tell me if the site belongs to a traditional publishing house? Here is their link: http://www.piper-fantasy.de/

Thanks!

-Paul

Sorry, I haven't heard of them. Their tagline "Gain fame and wealth" does not exactly inspire confidence in their seriousness. On the other hand, Piper Verlag looks a bit more legit and at least one of its novels has apparently been picked up for English publication by Penguin. But this is just what I've gleaned from 10 minutes of Googling. I'd ask someone involved in the German-language publishing industry.

Eldo-

Thanks for checking out Piper! As it turns out, they are the real deal. I just sent them a copy of The Wobbit. In fact, as I was researching them, a UK publisher also requested a copy! This is a very exciting time.

By the way, the thread with review and discussion of Jackson's first trailer is REALLY interesting! It is great fun to look forward to something. I, too, mourn all the changes (fewer songs, more action, new jokes) but I still enjoy seeing The Hobbit visualized in such great detail.

Thanks again!

-Paul

Great to hear you are getting noticed Wobbit! Best of luck.

It's awesome to hear that! Congratulations, Paul; I hope the foreign markets work out for you!

I had a great time waiting for the trailer to come out and then making screenshots and comments on it all night long. That was a fun time. I was thinking just the other day how remarkable it is that after about three years on this forum we are finally in the home stretch for The Hobbit. It will be released this calendar year, in almost exactly 11 months. I'm pretty stoked, even if I expect to be disappointed by some of the changes. I'm especially looking forward to Martin Freeman' Bilbo.

Congratulations, Paul I am not very surprised, though - it was only a matter of time, the Wobbit is a fantastic book Good luck!

(How are you doing with the LotR parody?)

Sounds very promising, Paul. Congrats! Mind, don't forget to put in a good word in for The Hobwit.

The Germans made me an offer! Not a quit-my-job one, but an offer all the same. Maybe I can quit my job after the NEXT book. I found an Intellectual Property lawyer, and as soon as we go over the contract, I'll be in business. I hope the London publisher makes an offer for the English-Language rights. Soon.

Orwell- Of course, I will continue to promote your book!

Ringdrotten- Sometimes I'm not able to post my LOTR excerpts here, like if my kids suddenly are home from school. Even though I only work on the LOTR parody sporadically, it's all on my blog: http://thewobbitaparody.blogspot.com/

Eldo- It sounds like we both are cautiously optimistic about the Hobbit movie.

PT and everyone- Thanks for the well wishing!

Ooh, I missed that there was work done on an LotR parody.

Wow, so his last post was before the Hobbit came out. He used to be here quite often in the olden days, before the catastrophe.

I can easily see Leslie Nielson in the role of Gandalf I see him in white pulling those iconic faces he pulled when things were going wrong He would have been perfect if he had lived longer.