The Shipping News
Posted on December 12, 2007 Posted by John Scalzi 20 Comments
Quick Note:
Those of you who ordered the second printing of Coffee Shop from Subterranean Press will be pleased to know it’s now been shipped (as, apparently, has their new Connie Willis book, All Seated on the Ground). The Subterranean folks also note:
While we still have copies on hand, both books had very small print runs for their authors, and we’ve just started receiving distributor and large online retailer orders. What does this mean? It means it’s all too likely that both books will be out of print by the new year or shortly thereafter. If you absolutely must have one or both for your collection, your best chance is to snag one now.
Not to pressure you or anything. The Connie Willis one does look sweet, however.
Not that I’m stupid or anything, but it took me awhile to parse “their new Connie Willis boo”
I came up with some interesting possibilities, until I read further and figured it out.
Heh. Fixed it.
Heh I thought maybe you started to think of Harlan Ellison and write “boob” but then came to your senses and stopped yourself.
Oddly enough, I received my copy of “Coffee Shop” before I received the newsletter from Subterranean telling me that they’d shipped.
I’ve had so much damn work to do that I haven’t had time to crack the cover, but still – it’s sitting on my desk, taunting me.
My copy came in yesterday and I’ve been reading every chance I get. I think I’m starting to annoy my wife with it as I keep laughing out loud while she’s trying to watch TV. *grin*
Got mine yesterday!
Is the Connie Willis book as short as most of her recent publications? I thought “Inside Job” was short until I bought “D.A.” – $40 for a short story? She’s one of my favorite authors, so I was automatically buying every new book (like I’ve started doing with John Scalzi), but I’ve been burned recently. “The Winds of Marble Arch” is plenty big (though I already own a lot of those stories). How about “All Seated on the Ground”?
I think it’s a shorter work (128 pages). Subterranean does quite a lot of limited run collector’s items, like novelettes and novellas; my “Sagan Diary” is an example of that.
Subterranean doesn’t hide that it makes these sort of shorter collector’s editions, but if you’re expecting a novel and you get a novella or novelette, yeah, you be annoyed. It’s always worth checking.
I got mine yesterday as well! *beams*
Thanks for the heads-up on the new Willis book – I just ordered it – and will have both books in time to sock myself in over New Years weekend. (Why, yes, marathon reading *is* my idea of a good time.)
I got mine yesterday and immediately dove in. Then I annoyed my wife by laughing so hard at one passage that I couldn’t even manage to read it to her so she could get the joke. Then she read it herself and called my sense of humor “sophomoric.” I dunno. What’s sophomoric about a “polished turd?”
Mine still hasn’t got here. I’d pout, but I’ve already used up all my pouting supplies moaning about how no one even commented on the lovely LOLScalzis.
And now it’s been ruined! I’ll have already heard the Polished Turd joke…bah! You guys should warn when you put in spoilers…LOL.
Mine came Monday, and I’m enjoying it very much! (Even if I don’t have a laptop to take to the coffee shop.)
I have apparently received mine as well (as it was delivered at home, and I’m at work)…
And I’m in Adelaide, South Australia :D
Got it. Came wrapped beautifully, too, I might add. I was kinda hoping I’d come down with something so I could take a day off work and read it. achoo?
whoops! when i got home, there it be! whee!
As John indicated, Subterranean Press specializes in doing limited editions of novellas and such, and have done that with three Connie Willis stories, “Inside Job”, “D.A”., and now “All Seated on the Ground”. “Inside Job” and “All Seated” both originally appeared in Asimov’s while “D.A.” was in the Space Cadets collection published at L.A. Con IV in 2006. You can still read a good chunk of “All Seated’ online on the Asimov’s site at http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0712/allseated.shtml . The Winds of Marble Arch is a very nice collection and definitely a lot of material, some of which hasn’t been collected before. Connie is close to finishing her next full novel, All Clear, which she’s been working on for over five years now.
Lee Whiteside
http://www.Conniewillis.net webmaster
Thanks for the info. As it turns out, I do have the December issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction (the very last of my subscription, since I haven’t been getting ANY of them read). And “All Seated on the Ground” is a clever little story, but I wouldn’t have been pleased to buy it in hardcover. Just too short. I really wanted to support SF authors by subscribing to the magazines, but I just don’t read them. Well, I suppose I’ll regret letting my subscriptions run out, but I can’t afford everything.
mine arrived yesterday, all the way over here in England.
Fantastic stuff.
I’m halfway through it now and very happy with it… If I ever see you at a convention or something, maybe I’ll ask you to sign it. Good work.