We’re Number One
Posted on April 3, 2007 Posted by John Scalzi 13 Comments
Oh, hey: Old Man’s War tops this month’s Locus Magazine Paperback Bestsellers list. This beats a sharp poke in the eye. The last three #1 Locus paperback bestselling authors: George RR Martin, Neil Gaiman and Robert Jordan. Let’s just say it does not suck to be in their company.
Thanks, folks, for picking up the book. This gets my April off to a nice start.
Woot! Congratzy!
Beat that with a stick! Congratulations, John.
Congrats, John. “George RR Martin, Neil Gaiman and Robert Jordan” never heard of those punters :)
Hey congrats! That is fine company indeed.
On the other hand, the therapeutic benefits of a sharp poke in the eye should not be entirely discounted, depending on whether one is the poker or the pokee.
George RR Martin is pissing me off!
I’m 3 books in and there no end in sight, and about 300 characters to keep track of.
George RR Martin = “Tuf Voyaging” a book I have bought three different times b/c I couldn’t immediately find my old copy and could not wait another day to read it again – or parts of it again.
I saw that ranking last night in LOCUS, too. Glad you spotted it — congrats. Did you read Charles N. Brown’s rather feisty column? He seems to be in favor of your bid for SFWA President. (You should let him know he can get a replacement for the ballot he threw away.) (grin)
Dr. Phil
This may have been covered in another post a while back, but …
As a random example, how many actual book sales would put someone at the top of such a list? I’m kind of curious as to how well, on average, sci-fi and fantasy sells day to day. Is 1500 copies sold in a week a lot, or a little? 5000? 500?
Kurt Montandon:
The actual number of books sold doesn’t matter for a list like this; as far as I know there’s not a minimum number required. What matters is how many books are sold relative to other books on the list, at the particular bookstores polled for this list.
For example, I have a very strong suspicion that A Feast for Crows probably sold more units when it was at #1 on this list than Old Man’s War sold to be #1 on the list, although in neither case do I have exact sales numbers (and I could be wrong, though I doubt it). However, in both our cases we sold more than the other guys that month. So we both get the pole position, regardless of which of us sold more units in our first month.
I saw that and showed it to my roommate and was all, “I met him!” :) (Then I told him all about the book and where he could purchase it.)
Gratters! You should feel like you, finally, are making it as a writer!
Actually, if that was me, I’d buy myself another pint of Ben and Jerry’s and throw a party.
I note that John Ringo’s “Unto the Breach” is on the hardback list. While John writes in the Posleen universe as SF, UTB is certainly neither SF nor fantasy (except in the sense that the “Ghost” series appeals to various male fantasies). Why is it on the Locus list?
I also note that David Weber’s “On Armegeddon Reef” is #1. I have read all of Weber and greatly enjoy European political history replayed out as a space opera but Armegeddon Reef is “Heirs of Empire” replayed. Oh well, name recognition is the source of a lot of sales.