Coffee Shop Rescheduled
Posted on July 31, 2006 Posted by John Scalzi 16 Comments
A note for the folks who have preordered You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop Into a Coffee Shop: Scalzi on Writing: Subterranean and I are pushing back the release date to February 2007. The pre-production took a little bit longer than we had anticipated, which would have pushed back the the release date to late September/early October, which would have been uncomfortably close to the release of The Android’s Dream.
Rather than have two books pop out on the market at the same time, we moved Coffee Shop back a bit. Now it rests comfortably between The Android’s Dream, which debuts on Halloween (w00t!) and The Last Colony, which arrives in May. This also gives us time to polish the book to a high sheen and to get it out to reviewers and what not. The content will likely remain the same, although it’s possible I might add a piece or two. I will tell you I’ve seen an early design version of it, and from that I can say it looks really great. It’s going to be worth the wait.
In any event, re-mark your calendars: Coffee Shop in 2/07. Maybe I should do a tour of coffee shops then, eh?
Tour the coffee shops? Hell yeah! The release of this fallls in time with my daughter’s birthday. And the one year anniversary of our studio opening. I think I deserve it as a gift. Someone tell Mrs. Chang.
I would think that these two books would have different markets, with the obvious overlap of Whatever readers and Scalzi fans (Scalzites?). Androids is being published by Tor on a mass market scale, while Coffee Shop is published by Subterranean and is being primarily marketed to those interested in writing. Why isn’t this a factor?
Yes, I am impatient! Is it that obvious?
[QUOTE]In any event, re-mark your calendars: Coffee Shop in 2/07. Maybe I should do a tour of coffee shops then, eh?[/QUOTE]
You wouldn’t be fooling anyone.
Anne C:
“I would think that these two books would have different markets…”
To some degree. However, many of the reviewers will be the same, and we do intend to market in the science fiction arena because a significant portion of the book talks about science fiction. So the overlap is a bot more substantial than it might initially appear.
Whoa, I forgot that I ordered that book. Got it in just under the self-imposed “stop buying crap” mandate. I’ll be sure to forget it again soon, so that’ll be a pleasant surprise when it shows.
I just hope I don’t move between now and then.
Ah. Got it. Thanks, John. :)
So if the problem is reviewers, etc., perhaps an Subterranean would be up for an online (pre-)release for Whatever readers?
Well, the problem isn’t reviewers, it was a longer pre-production schedule (which wasn’t precisely a problem, it just took longer than expected). The delay does give us more time to formulate a marketing and promotion strategy, which is a good thing.
Since the book is made from Whatever entries, technically speaking, much of it is online anyway.
if you tour the coffee shops, i will rally the troops to attend, with their laptops and contemptuous looks at your gaucherie, and refusals to buy your book. i will go to grimace at you periodically for disturbing my writing time.
more people who write in coffeeshops:
china mieville (i read it in an interview)
alan kaufman (who writes in one of the coffee shops i frequent)
karl soehnlein (ditto)
all *book-published writers*, punk. plus, i’m writing this from a coffee shop.
Bring it on, Claire. I openly mock your coffee shop-writing ways! Ha! I say! Ha!
“Since the book is made from Whatever entries, technically speaking, much of it is online anyway.”
[Whatever newbie methodically combing through eight years of archives for keyword “Writing.”]
“Yes, dear … you go to bed without me … I’ll be up … in a while …”
Hee, Jeff, the time spent is worth it.
James Lileks writes in coffee shops too. I’m just sayin’…
I must be going to the wrong places. The only celebrity in my local coffee shop is a guy who wears a Superman cape.
John:
How does this affect the Whatever compilation that Coffee Shop was spun off from?
It’s still planned, although we’re looking at release dates.