My 2007 Literary Output: A Review
Posted on December 28, 2006 Posted by John Scalzi 19 Comments
What will you see from me in 2007, and what won’t you see from me in 2007, but I will be working on, nonetheless? Here’s what I know I’m doing, so far:
Stuff coming out in 2007 that I have dates for:
1. Old Man’s War (mass market paperback edition), January 2007: Those of you waiting for OMW to come out in the supermarket racks, here you go!
2. The Sagan Diary, February 2007: As most of you know, this is a novelette (it comes out to about 100 pages) written from the point of view of Jane Sagan, one of the major characters in my Old Man series. It’ll be available in hardcover and in deluxe leatherbound editions. Both are limited editions, the leatherbound version more so than the other. This novelette is almost entirely different, stylistically, than anything else I’ve ever written, so those of you who pick it up are going to see a side of my writing you haven’t seen before. It’s good, trust me. It’s just different.
3. You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop Into a Coffeeshop: Scalzi on Writing, March 2007: My book on writing and the writing life is now going out in early March, I think, and should be a lot of fun; it collects up a number of essays on writing originally published here on the Whatever, including some that are no longer archived on the site, so the book will be the best way of seeing them. This is a signed limited edition hardcover.
4. The Last Colony, May 2007: The third and for now final book in the Old Man series, which reunites John Perry and Jane Sagan, and pits them against, oh, most of the entire universe. You know how it is. I think this book finishes off this particular series in a really compelling way; I like it a lot, and I suspect I’ll be promoting my brains out over it. This will be a hardcover release.
5. The Ghost Brigades (mass market paperback edition), May 2007: This hits around the same time as the hardcover edition of The Last Colony. Collect it! In convenient summer reading form!
Stuff coming out in 2007 I don’t have dates for:
1. The Rough Guide to the Universe, Second Edition: I’ll be getting new and updated chapters to Rough Guides in August, so I’d say to look for the second edition of this book sometime around the holidays of 2007 or possibly early 2008.
2. Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: Collected Writings, 1998 – 2006: This limited collection of Whatever essays was originally planned for 2006 but we held off for various reasons. Now it’s on track for sometime in the second half of 2007, which gives me time to update the text with some of my favorite stuff from this year.
3. An Untitled Fantasy Novella. It actually has a title, but I don’t want to say what it is yet, because it gives away something crucial about the plot that I don’t want to discuss until I finish the novella. However, yes, I will be trying something on the fantasy side of things. Should you be afraid? Oh, I don’t know. I think this could be fun.
4. Various short stories. I’ve agreed to write some short stories for some people. These will come out when they come out, and of course I’ll let you know when they do.
5. The Android’s Dream (mass market paperback edition): I imagine this will hit very late in 2007, possibly just ahead of the hardcover release of the sequel, which is slated for very early 2008.
Note that stuff in 2007 that doesn’t have dates is fungible — some of it could move to 2008; some of it might not happen at all.
What do I know I am writing in 2007? Much of it is already noted above: I’ll be tackling a sequel to The Android’s Dream, updating my Universe book, writing the fantasy novella and getting out those short stories. I’ll also be writing at least one more novel, most likely the first book of the Super Secret Project I Can’t Tell You About. In addition, I’m contributing to at least one more Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader, and will be writing some magazine articles. I’m also continuing my work with AOL Journals in 2007, which means I’ll be continuing my Author Interview series. And of course I’ll continue writing Whatever here.
I think all of this should keep me busy in 2007. For 2008: Nothing concrete planned outside the release of the sequel to TAD, but in 2007 I hope to submit proposals for a couple of novels, including possibly a YA, and a proposal for a non-fiction work I’ve been mulling over for some time now. For 2009: Geez, who knows.
That’s what I’m up to, writing-wise, in 2007.
I’m so full of anticipation for The Last Colony that my genitals have sucked up into my body cavity!! OK, maybe not that much(!) but I can’t wait for it, almost as much as John Birmingham’s final book Final Impact.
BTW John (and co.), I just posted an “I Dig Scalzi” bit, if you’re so interested.
Oh man, there goes my book budget for the new year!
Joy of joys, I did receive TAD for Christmas. So now, once I finish the Years Best (eds Datlow, Link and Grant) that’s up next (shuffled to the top of the guilt pile).
Although I did see OMW in mass market paperback on the shelves yesterday at Borders…
Nr. 3; How long do you reckon your fantasy novella might turn out?
And how come every, or mostly every, novel I want to read next year, publishes in spring and final exams time? Damn, It’s infuriating!
What differentiates a mass market paperback from a regular paperback?
A mass market paper back is a regular paperback. A trade paperback is larger.
Dude, that is a seriously large amount of writing.
I’m worried you’ll get a torn brain ligament.
John, can you point us to an old post (or, heck, write a new one) that describes your daily writing routine when you’re mid-novel? Same time every day? Work at it for as long as you can stand? Fit it in around short/commercial work, or vice versa? It’s admirable that you can readily plan ahead for your fiction production (none of this rubbish about waiting for the Muse, and whatnot), and I’d like to know how you go about it.
You’d think, after having read as many ~Paris Review~ interviews as I have, that my curiosity on points like this would be sated for a lifetime. But no.
Hube – don’t worry, dude. My genitalia disappeared into my body ages ago and it’s no big deal. Of course, I’m a girl, so there’s that.
John, just wanted to let you know that I faced out TAD when I was out doing my “what shall I spend my Christmas gift card on” early recon flyby of B&N. The Super Secret Cabal of Scalzi strike again.
Sounds VERY busy. I cannot wait to read The Last Colony! Thankfully The Sagan Diary comes out soon so that I can get back to this universe asap!
Just how, or why, do publishers put books out in hardcover first, and then paperback?
I ask this because I live out of a rucksack most of the time, and I find paperbacks to be just the rght size to stash one in my ruck, and maybe another in the cargo pocket on my uniform. Many’s the time I have seen some book I really want in hardback, but despair of having to wait months for the more portable version.
Why don’t publishers put out hard and soft cover editions at the same time?
Thanks to you for offering “Ghost Brigades” to us in the military, it was great, and thanks to any of your readers who have ever donated anything benefit the servicemembers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
SFC SKI:
“Why don’t publishers put out hard and soft cover editions at the same time?”
Because they don’t make as much money doing it that way. Really, that’s what it is.
OMW tpb spotted (and purchased) on the bookshop racks at Penn Station, New York.
OMW tpb spotted (and purchased) on the bookshop racks at Penn Station, New York.
OMW tpb spotted (and purchased) on the bookshop racks at Penn Station, New York.
Will You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop Into a Coffeeshop: Scalzi on Writing contain new material, or is it entirely an anthology of Whatever essays?
Don: It’s a Whatever anthology.
I was struck by your advisement to buy the mass market copy of The Ghost Brigades at the same time as buying the hardcover version of The Last Colony.
I’m one of those strange people who would be bothered by doing so; I prefer to have the same type of edition of all the books in a particular series…