General FAQs

• • What are you writing now?
  • Where do you get your ideas from?
  • Will there be films made of any of your books?
  • Can I write a screenplay/roleplaying game/computer game based on your book/s?
  • I can’t find your books anywhere! What should I do?
  • What languages are your books published in?
  • Are there audio editions of your books?
  • Do you have any control over the price of your ebooks?
  • I’ve set up a forum for discussion on your books. Do you mind? Could you come and visit?
  • Can I use images or text from your site?
  • Why don’t you set up a forum on your website?
  • Are you on social media?
  • Could you come to my home town to sign books?
  • How many books can I take to a signing?
  • Can you send me an autographed photo? Can I send books to you to sign? Can you send a birthday/wedding/etc. message to someone I know?
  • Can I have a copy of your unfinished book for a sick/dying friend/relative?
  • Do you want to know about typos/errors in your books?
  • Do you need proofers or beta readers?
  • Will you read my manuscript/story idea/suggestion for future books?
  • What is your stance on fanfic?
  • Can I have some tips on writing?

I'm between projects. What I want to work on next is a collection of short stories and novellas. 

I figure you’re really asking what inspires me. Lots of things do: books I’ve read (fiction and non-fiction), the news, tv, radio, films, music, people I talk to — be they friends or just some stranger I struck up a conversation with. There are stories everywhere. I think for me stories are about people — what happens to them and how they react.

It would be wonderful to see my stories made into films, and even better if they were made into good films. I have a film agent, and we are waiting for the right offer to come for the rights.

I have no intention of making a film myself, though I’m always flattered by fans urging me to try. I firmly believe that only a small number of people would enjoy a film made with a cheap hand held camera in my back yard with my friends as actors, so I’m happy to wait for someone with the right credentials and budget to come along with a serious proposal.

If I ever sell the rights, believe me, I’ll be telling everyone about it!

From time to time enthusiastic amateurs contact me asking for permission to write a screenplay, make a roleplaying or computer game, or begin other projects based on my books. While I love to see other creative people inspired by my work, I can’t give such permission. These rights have either been sold already (as part of publishing contracts), or are part of a package someone else is selling on my behalf (my film agent, for example). However, if you are really keen and have the right credentials, by all means contact my publishers or agent with a proposal.

If you are considering creating something based on my books, or anybody else’s, you owe yourself and the author the time and respect to research international copyright law and follow it. And remember, it probably won’t be me sending you a summons to court, but the big, powerful publishing or film companies.

I'm going to assume you checked more than one bookshops and not all of the same chain, and bookstores that specialise in fantasy and science fiction books.

Have you asked any of these bookshops to order it for you? Sometimes a bookstore hasn’t realised that the stock has run out – their databases don’t know when books are stolen, so nothing alerts staff that stock needs replacing. The best part about you asking a bookshop to order in my books is that they’ll often order a couple more at the same time, which tells the publishers that maybe they should do a bigger print reprint run next time.

(Consider this: if you don’t buy some books from bricks’n’mortar shops, they’ll close down and there’ll be nowhere for authors to do signings.)

All my books should be available as ebooks in all the main formats and regions, but perhaps not in all languages. If not, let me know and I'll ask my publisher to look into it.

Yes. Look under the Books menu and select the series, then scroll down to see which languages they have been printed in. I’m afraid the list will always be incomplete, as often the only way I know if a book has been published is if I receive a copy, and some publishers are slow to or forget to send them. Some books have been published in a language but since gone out of print, or republished by a new publisher and I don't yet have covers. 

Yes, all are available in English and some, but not all, are available in German and Polish.

No. Occasionally a reader will email to complain that the print edition is cheaper than the ebook. Usually the reason for this is that the print edition has been heavily discounted, not that the ebook price has been hiked.

You’re welcome to start a forum to discuss my books. I don’t have the time to chat on forums, however, and I’ve heard that sometimes members prefer the author stays away so they can speak their mind freely. 

My author photo and biography, the book covers and the back cover blurbs are available for use, but all other text and photos belongs either to me or my publisher and is not available for use outside this site without permission.

Because I don’t have time to maintain one.

I have a Twitter account (@TrudiCanavan) but no longer use it except to check notifications and answer questions, and occasionally post news. I'm on Instagram as “trudicanavan”. My publisher maintains the Trudi Canavan Fan Page on Facebook but since I can't post on it I don't visit often.

I’d love to, but if I was to go to the home town of every fan I'd spend all my time travelling and none writing! Also, it’s simply impossible to sign enough books to cover travel and accommodation expenses, whether I’m on tour interstate within Australia or another country. So to reach as many fans as possible, it’s better for me to go to central locations – usually capitol and large regional cities, but also festivals and conventions.

That depends on the size of the queue. When there are lots of people wanting books signed there will be a limit to the number I can sign, so it doesn't take too long - and my hands don't sieze up! If there aren't too many people wanting their books signed I'll happily sign them all, but ask anyone with large numbers of books to go to the end of the queue so they don't hold things up for those who only have a few. 

I used to do this, but I was in danger of spending more time going to and from the post office or writing messages than writing. I prefer to sign books at bookshops and conventions, which benefits the people who support authors. If you want a birthday/wedding/etc. message I’m happy to sign cards at these events too.

This is a difficult one. I am contractually obliged to not give out copies of my books before they are published. Also, I’m reasonably certain that someone tried to scam an early draft out of me with a made-up sad story some years ago, so I’m wary of such emails now.

Out of the hundreds of thousands of words in my books, despite rigorous editing processes, it’s inevitable that a few mistakes will make it to printing. And the ebooks have their own formatting issues. Corrections can be made to reprints and ebooks, so it's great when people tell me about mistakes. But please check the Known Typos page to see if the ones you've found have already been reported.

No. Publishing companies arrange proof reading, so who does it is not something I get to decide. It also happens at a stage in the process where there is no time for outside proofers to have a look at it.

As for beta readers, I’m very choosy about who I seek feedback. As you can imagine, I don’t want to show messy, unpolished versions of my books to anyone but people I know and trust!

No. I have a chronic back injury and most of the small amount of time I can spend at the computer each day goes to writing related activity. Reading your story idea puts me in an awkward position if your ideas turn out to be close to mine. Also, when someone suggests story ideas to me it instantly becomes too predictable, and if lots of people gave me suggestions there’d soon be no options left for me to use!

Go to Fan Fiction.

Yes. Go to Writing Advice.