Finding Old Man’s War
Posted on February 8, 2005 Posted by John Scalzi 19 Comments
Well, the good news is Old Man’s War is selling really well. The bad news is that it’s selling well enough that the first print run is almost entirely sold through, and copies of the book are getting scarce. Amazon, BN.com, Booksamillion and even (gasp!) Wal-Mart are currently out of copies and are listing waits of a week or more before the book arrives.
Tor is rushing through another printing (yay!) and actually expanded the number of copies it’s printing (yay! yay!), so more books are on the way. But if you want a book within the next week, you’ll have to do some hunting.
Or, alternately, follow the links below, because I really, really, really want to keep people happy and satisfied.
Powell’s appears to have five copies.
Mega Media Depot, which has a store via eBay, claims to have 29 copies, and not a bad price for them, either.
Total Campus (another eBay store) has two copies.
BookMarz II and More Movies Direct each have one copy.
And of course the Science Fiction Book Club has their own edition of the book still in stock. If you haven’t already signed up for SFBC, you can sign up for their “5 books for $1” thing, with the catch being that you then have to buy four more books from them over (I think) a year. If you buy a lot of SF, and don’t mind book club editions of books, then it’s a pretty good deal.
I’m pretty sure that more than these 38 copies plus book club exist in the physical world — no doubt there are still copies on the shelf. And in any event the second printing will be in stores very soon. But for now, that’s where I’ve found it selling and in stock online. Have at them.
You can imagine how I feel at the moment: Pleased the book is selling well, and apprehensive that the people who can’t get the book exactly when they want it (i.e., now) will forget about it later. I’m sure that won’t be too much of an issue, but it’s one thing to know it and another thing to feel it. So let’s go, second printing! Assuage my petty fears, if you please.
John___
I just ordered a copy from amazon
and was told it would be delivered
around 2/14
so they don’t appear to be out.
Dammit, if it werent for my card being stolen earlier today (all frikken crackers must frikken die), I’d be ordering from the SF book club right now.
I try and buy my books locally when possible, but B&N, and Borders have both failed me for weeks at this point (I even ordered it, no luck).
D’you know if the book club edition is significantly different than the full retail version?
I’d assume at most cheaper paper and a book club inscribed binding and copyright page.
The differences I’ve noticed with the book club edition are a glossier cover, different grade of paper, different color of the actual book, and a different binding. The copyright page is the same, actually. The retail version is overall a bit higher quality, but the book club version still looks good and otherwise reads perfectly fine. Same words, after all.
OK, so, quick question from a wannabe book snob: is there any way for us to tell whether we’ve gotten a first printing or second printing book?
There’s a notation on the copyright page as to which printing it is. Otherwise, not really.
Can I just say that following the success of OMW from afar is a great vicarious thrill? Yay for you, John Scalzi. I think it’s about time I ordered a copy.
Congratulations! I’m not surprised though. Thrilled for you! Don’t you just love the way the good old capitalistic market works? Scarcity is working for you, really. Folks will enjoy the book that much more after having waited for it.
I’ve been keeping my eyes out for it, but as of yet have not seen a physical copy anywhere. Having already read it online I probably won’t be actually buying a copy (sorry, dude). But I have been trying to at least see what it looks like in print. No luck so far.
I wouldn’t be too concerned about there not being books available “right now”. A good sci-fi book will always be a good book and people will continue to hype it and wait for it for years. It’s not like its based upon too many current events or about to be proven wrong science. The demand may increases its lure as bloggers continue to talk about it.
Being the counter-culture bastard that I am, my 1st edition copy of OMW is currently making the rounds at work. With my insidious book-sharing ring, soon I’ll have caused Scalzi’s publishing empire to grind to a halt!
OK, sure, there’s a couple guys that subsequently went out and bought their own copies, but that’s just because they don’t quite understand the malicious book-sharing system.
“With my insidious book-sharing ring, soon I’ll have caused Scalzi’s publishing empire to grind to a halt!”
You bastards! How dare you even *gaze* upon the book without paying full price! Why, if you communists have your way, soon there will be vast respositories of book held in the communal trust! Madness!
My local bookstore has one copy left on their shelves. I thought about buying it, seeing as my first copy fell in a snowbank. I would very much like to have a nice, pristine, autographed copy for posterity.. But I’ll have to track down a first edition hardcover edition of House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski first – which could cost me a pretty penny.
Congrats John!
Not to pry into your private finances, but I do hope this means the book has sold more than enough to earn out.
I mean if you have equivalent success with androids and ghost brigade, and you have three novels earn out in three years, that puts you pretty close to the top of the midlist of mainstream authors, never mind genre; A significant achievment by any standard.
What do I hear for *my* first printing copy of “Old Man’s War?”
Let’s start the bidding at 50 dollars. C’mon, fifty fifty fifty. Okay, twenty five, twenty five, who’ll give me twenty five for this collectable item?
I’ll give you 50 cents. The guy’s a damn hack.
John, I tried the Borders in Hollywood over the weekend and nary an OMW to be found. When I checked out their little computer terminals it said “Out of Print”. See, already you’re out of print! But since I already knew about the upcoming second printing, I did not fear for my future OMW reading.
On the plus side, I noticed Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett on the shelves, bought it and am loving it.
Well, I think that’s a perfectly reasonable second choice. I love that book.
I ordered a copy from Amazon a week or so ago, when they said it would be a week or two before it was in stock. It was at my door two days later.
‘The Book of my Enemy Has Been Remaindered’
Well, not my enemy, exactly. And not remaindered, actually. But, I did find a copy of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War in the used book store. I’ve scanned