“Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded”: Available For Pre-order
Posted on May 15, 2008 Posted by John Scalzi 34 Comments
I’m extremely pleased to announce that Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998 – 2008 is now available for pre-order straight from Subterranean Press. For those of you who don’t know, Hate Mail is a retrospective of the entire run of Whatever, all the way back to the hazy days of 1998, when the concept of blogging was so new they didn’t even have the word “blog” yet. We called them “online diaries.” We also had to type uphill in the snow, both ways. And we liked it.
The book is limited, signed edition, and only 1,000 copies of the hardcover are being produced (it’s possible there will be a trade paperback version later, but it will be a long time from now if at all, and it won’t be signed). The limited edition will be $35 (the same price as Coffee Shop), and there will be a special lettered, traycased edition for $250. There will be only 26 of those.
Why should you order Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded? I have a list of reasons:
1. It includes Whatever entries from the early years (1998 – 2002), which are not currently on the site. Now you can finally see what you missed.
2. It also includes entries from 2002 – 2007, which are on the site, but thanks to the generally awesomely broken and disorganized nature of Scalzi.com and Whatever (because I suck, you see), are difficult to get to.
3. Writing the foreword: Wil Wheaton. Yes, the Internet’s own Wil Wheaton. You know Wil. You like Wil. And if you shell out for the lettered edition, you’ll get Wil’s signature along with mine. And that’s just so much geek joy.
4. If you order the book through the Subterranean Press site, you will receive an exclusive, special extra: A chapbook entitled “Waiting For Athena,” with Whatever entries about Krissy’s pregnancy and Athena’s birth. You can only get this if you order through SubPress; ordering off Amazon or BN.com will cause you to miss out.
5. This picture (or one very much like it) will be on the cover:
6. And this picture (or one very much like it) will be on the back cover:
7. Every penny of author income from the sale of these books will go to the Athena Scalzi World Domination Foundation, a foundation dedicated to the principle that things would be much better if a quirky nine-year-old girl ruled the planet. How could you not want that?
8. The book is printed in English, with words flowing from left to right. These superior and unique features, we believe, will offer better reading comfort for most of the book’s intended audience.
9. Copies of Coffee Shop, the previous Subterranean Press limited edition book based on Whatever entries, have an asking price of up to three hundred dollars on the rare books Web sites. Think what Hate Mail will be worth, especially after my death during the long-predicted Horrible Dolphin Incident of 2011. Yes! Profit from my freakish demise! I want you to.
10. It will make you smarter, wittier, and more attractive to the people you wish to be more attractive to. Just like beer.
All of these are excellent, excellent reasons.
Here’s the SubPress order page again, and remember, ordering through SubPress is the way to get the “Waiting for Athena” chapbook. The book itself will be published September 13, which is the ten-year anniversary of Whatever. Save the date.
Re: Point #2: You know what would make sense? For Subterranean to spring for a college student on summer vacation to work as a manservant/gal Friday at the Scalzi Compound, walking the cats, fetching Krissy’s Dad iced tea, and repairing, organizing and indexing the Whatever archive. That’s what would make sense. You could call the person “Jasper” for the time being.
I don’t know. I’ve seen the science behind it, but I don’t think the dolphins will succeed in flipping the magnetic poles in 2011. I know they are trying, but really, I think you will survive the HDI.
Now, I do believe that the CERN black hole generator might kill you at the 2015 Worldcon…but that’s for another day…
.tfel-ot-thgir morf nettirw fi ekil eb thgim koob eht tahw gnirednow flesym dnuof yletaidemmi I
(It was harder to touch type that than I thought it would be.)
I’ll bet.
I’m guessing this is the point where I’m supposed to remind you of this detail. Or if not now, then again in September, in which case this is simply a pre-reminder. That’s a word, right?
It is now. And yes. Remind me in September.
Ah, the quandary. Do I sell my copy of Coffee Shop, which was once of the very last they had, so that I can put the money toward my new time-trial bike? Or do I wait some extra time on the bike and keep the arsenal of writing knowledge in the Scalzi section of my bookshelf?
I suppose the question is: are there plans afoot to reprint Coffee Shop?
Dan:
At the moment, no. There are still some copies of the second printing available.
forward s/b foreword
Bought. It will be nice to have another totally biased review to write. :)
In my case it wasn’t a picture of bacon taped to a cat that brought me my fifteen seconds of internet fame, but this picture of an American gym.
That was five years ago and never had a better day since….
For some reason, I thought I remember reading that you were going to do a sequel to Coffee Shop discussing more
rantsadvice on the writing life. Are you actually writing a sequel or is Hate Mail just the book that my twisted my mind warped into believing was a sequel? I can fully accept the fact that I’m just crazy, but could you let me know either way, please? Thanks.Preordered! Thank god we live in a time when spending one’s tax relief check is as easy as going online and putting in some numbers.
Another book of essays on writing is not likely to come along for some time, Jason. Hate Mail, however, has a number of writing-related essays that were posted after Coffee Shop went to print.
That cover might scare my wife (both sides – she’s scared of all animals) , but I think it will look pretty next to my copy of Coffee Shop, with its somewhat bland cover.
… my death during the long-predicted Horrible Dolphin Incident of 2011.
“This was to be John Scalvi’s greatest victory. But it was also the ultimate cause of his downfall.”
Are the book proceeds going to be enough for the Athena Scalzi World Domination Foundation? Surely paypal donations would help, too. I mean, giant laser space frisbees are EXPENSIVE.
John, since you and Wil are playing so nicely in this book, is there any chance the two of you could do something together at Loscon this year? Your being GOH is a bucket of Win, but you and Wil having a panel where it’s just you guys shooting the shit for an hour? EPIC WIN.
Adam Rakunas:
I’ll mention it to Wil. I am indeed hoping to see him there.
Yay!
How long does it take to sign 1000 copies?
John,
A little help please. Since I shelled out for the lettered edition of Heinlein SubPress is doing, (note to wife – I now don’t need a Father’s Day present) he is RAH after all.
Make an argument defending your lettered edition as a worthy purchase so I can get it for my birthday as well.
Show work and cite sources where appropriate.
(I already tried “I want it I want it I want it; gimme gimme gimme” – that didn’t work)
Dude, if you’ve already bought a lettered edition for the year I think you’ve done enough for Subterranean. Go ahead and get the limited.
All pre-ordered. Yay! Now I suppose I can *also* go and pre-order Zoe’s Tale from my local independent bookstore.
You had me at ‘And we liked it!’
Although, I still prefer the memories of shoe box living.
Pre-ordered. I wanted to be sure I got it. Though the fact that I’m moving between now and the release date (and thus presumably the shipping and maybe the billing) complicates things. Oh the troubles I go through for your semi-lucid pixel-scribblings in dead tree form…
It’s appreciated, randomscrub. Really, it is.
Isn’t “quirky nine year old” redundant?
Wow. I’m totally in the same boat as randomscrub. Moving from Iowa City to L.A. at the end of July. Hopefully I can update my address with Subterranean between now and then.
Congrats, John! I am $57 away this year from being a “true fan” of yours. (I earlier bought Old Man’s War. I suspect, based on reading a blurb in Prairie Lights, that “The Android’s Dream” is next.)
Having the Bacon Cat on the back alon is reason enough to own the book. Bacon makes everything better
Wow. Can you guarantee us that no Emmas will be allowed any positions of power in Athena’s Dominated World?
What, you think Athena would share power?
We just figured every good dictator needs a propaganda head.
Given the pair’s adventures last evening, I think “minister of science” might be the gig for Emma.