Today is Redshirts Publication Day in the UK
Posted on November 15, 2012 Posted by John Scalzi 32 Comments
For all my British friends who were wondering when it was they might be able to get their hands on the actual, verified, made-in-the-UK version of Redshirts: Today is that day! Rush this very instant to your favorite bookstore and demand it. Politely, please. Don’t, like, upend a front table as soon as you arrive to the store and bellow “DAMN YOUR EYES WHERE IS REDSHIRTS?!?” to the now appalled and terrified retail staff. They’re just trying to get along with their day, man. They don’t need that sort of scene. You can also get it online: Here’s the Amazon UK link; here it is at Waterstone’s.
The astute and/or fanatical among you may note that Redshirts is being published in the UK by Gollancz, which is to say, yes, I have a new publisher in the UK. I’m delighted to be working with them, and hopefully this will be the start of a beautiful relationship. Much will depend on the sales figures. But I believe in you, UK! Hey, did you know that the holidays are coming up? That’s what they tell me. It may just be a rumor. But if the rumors are true, Redshirts would be a fine gift for yourself, the ones you love, and also just random people. Seriously, buy the book, walk up to some person you don’t know, thrust the book at them and say “All the answers are in here. You’ll know them when you see them. I can’t say any more. They are watching me,” and then just walk off, cryptically. Studies I have just made up in my head show it’s the best way to get random people to read a book.
On second thought, just stick with the people you know. Probably for the best that way.
In any event, UK, I do hope you enjoy Redshirts. I had fun writing it; I think you’ll have fun reading it.
(P.S. Check out the latest SFX Magazine; it’s got a thumbs-up review of the book which declares that the book “doesn’t boldly go up its own arse.” That’s a blurb for the paperback for sure!)
(P.P.S: And here’s a new review at Sci-Fi Bulletin, which says “Think of a combination of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and Galaxy Questand you’ve got the flavour of John Scalzi’s latest novel Redshirts – but it’s much more than that.”)
Finally!
I can’t believe we still have this regionalised publishing model going on for so many forms of media, though, and I hope we won’t have to for long. The future is here already, and it has been for quite some time.
Pre-ordered on Kindle and arrived this morning :)).
And Tom Stoppard, eh? That’s a pretty good comparison! (Sorry about multi-posting, I scuttled down to the comments section before reading the whole post – my bad.)
It must take a long time to add all those extra “u”s.
Added to my Christmas list for my other half to buy for me. I decided that if I couldn’t get it when it was actually released due to regional shenanigans, I could wait a few weeks longer and get someone else to cough up the readies.
This is actucally also good news for the rest of us Europeans (those of us who can’t speak German beyond ordering a coffee and the occasional tweets). Postage will be so much cheaper now. Yeah, I’m still waiting for the translation to MY language.
So I shall run to the nearest Book outlet and say: “Oy, bloody ‘ell, where’s me Red Blouses by Scalzi”
Was there a translation to the Queen’s English? Or are they stuck reading it in only the lowly bastardized American form?
Cheese! By now I would think readers in the UK have seen all the spoilers and killed sales 8-{D
Kilroy:
Don’t you know the Kings English?
Sure, so’s the Queen!
Will the UK version also be DRM free?
Seriously, buy the book, walk up to some person you don’t know, thrust the book at them and say “All the answers are in here. You’ll know them when you see them. I can’t say any more. They are watching me,” and then just walk off, cryptically.
It would probably make my year to be on the receiving end of this exchange. In theory, anyway; In practice, the book would inevitably turn out to be Atlas Shrugged or the next Glenn Beck opus.
I hope you don’t mind John, but I quoted you on my FB page as saying; “Seriously, buy the book, walk up to some person you don’t know, thrust the book at them and say “All the answers are in here. You’ll know them when you see them. I can’t say any more. They are watching me,” and then just walk off, cryptically. Studies I have just made up in my head show it’s the best way to get random people to read a book.” – John Scalzi… genius. Don’t worry too much though if you’re not into being quoted, I’m pretty sure no one will see it there.
re: ”doesn’t boldly go up its own arse.”
A friend of mine is a clothing designer, and her nine-year-old daughter just came home from school with a Thanksgiving “things I am thankful for” assignment, with a carefully-lettered list that started “kittens, Mom, frogs…”.
So we’ve come to the obvious conclusion that her new clothing line should bear the advertising slogan “Better than frogs!”
Redshirts was observed in the wild in large-format paperback form in London today. I didn’t buy it – I’ve got a copy already on the way by post.
So, in the 18th century, the British Army, known as Red Coats, were truly Redshirts. Hummm… that whole American Revolution is starting to make more sense…
“Studies I have just made up in my head show…”
That reminds me…86.5% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
You turned off comments on the previous post, but it looks like the Ada article has been protected and is no longer viewable to the greater interwebs.
I had the great pleasure of there being slight resistance when I opened the front door, because there was a copy of Redshirts lying on the mat. I also have the anticipatory pleasure of reading it tomorrow (tonight, I’m going out)…
“Studies I have just made up in my head…” — I’ve been waiting my entire life for somebody to come right out and say that!
SusanB
The Ada article comes up for me with no problem.
I have an unimportant and meaningless question. When a book by an author based in the states is released in the UK, do the editors add that extra ‘u’ in words like “colour” and “neighbour”?
Did your British editor do a reverse Harry Potter to the vocab? (It’s a while since I read the book; do your characters even wear trainers or jumpers?)
I’m a bit puzzled about the Sci-Fi Bulletin review. Paul SImpson throws you one bouquet after another, praising the book in every conceivable manner — “works on multiple levels,” “beautifully touching,” “optimistic yet poignant,” “laugh-out-loud antics” — yet only gives it 9/10? What does a book have to do to get a 10 from this guy, shine his shoes and do his taxes?
On my phone, waiting to be read. This is the first e-book I’ve bought as opposed to free books I’ve downloaded but the price difference (£7.99 vs £17.00) made it a obvious decision. Looking forward to a few nights fun reading.
…. Buy the book, walk up to some person you don’t know, thrust the book at them and say “All the answers are in here. You’ll know them when you see them. I can’t say any more. They are watching me,” and then just walk off, cryptically… That is the best marketing advice I’ve ever heard! I’m going to try it out with my new book. BTW, that strategy is how I found your book. My son read it and thrust it at me and said that, but before I read your book, I took him to a therapist to talk about the “watching me” comment.
Also Australia! At least for Amazon ebook versions.
”doesn’t boldly go up its own arse.” Congratulations, you can add criticaly acclaimed to your introduction.
Congratulations on the release and the new UK publishing partnership with Gollancz. I’m not kidding, for awhile there in the mid-noughties I thought of writing them and asking if they had a yearly subscription I could pay and they just ship me every title they had going as it was released–their lineup of authors was that good (still is).
And ”doesn’t boldly go up its own arse.” is a cover blurb for the ages!
Bought on Kindle. Apparently not DRM free :(
Although I have the DRM removal plugins installed in Calibre, I don’t buy ebooks with DRM: if I buy the book and remove the DRM the publisher has no incentive to sell it without DRM.
So, can John confirm that the deal with Gollancz does not require them to publish Redshirts DRM-free? If so, I can at least know that I shouldn’t waste my time looking for it and should go back to reading Neal Asher instead.
I’ve got the new SFX but haven’t got to the Redshirts review yet… that quote makes me want to skip to it :)
Blue-Jay and others – I don’t know about Redshirts as I haven’t bought it yet, but I have a lot of books in my house by American authors which use American words and spellings. Including the British edition of Old Man’s War (I just checked). I don’t know whether Harry Potter is unusual or whether American publishers just think Americans can’t understand British English while British publishers know we all understand American!
Sorry John but this was one of the funniest posts you had ever written.
a true fan or even just a random reader would have baught (or got hold) of his copy when it was first published. and not wait for the local publisher to finally publish it after almost a year had past.
who cares about the local right’s when amazone and other companies deliver for free anywhere in the world’ and the “new” invension called the internet bring it to your computer even faster.
this is a good example why the old publishing houses and the old publishing method’s are just not relevant any more.
if we would have waited for the local publisher’s to import /publish the book’s no one here would ever read fuzzy nation.
So, is the basic difference between the American version & British version of the book is the spelling? (British spelling?)
Ever since I’ve read _RedShirts_ I have seen examples of Redshirts everywhere. Redshirts the movie? Already been done, it is called _Poseidon_ as in the remake of the 70s _The Poseidon Adventure_. They were doing both versions on TV one really rainy and crappy day. I remember seeing the original movie back when I was a kid. I never saw the remake until now. That is THE reddest shirt movie I have ever seen. Essentially the “people” on that remake was there to be ship fodder. They didn’t even bother giving anyone characters to play or even a back story. Just make the danger and the demise bigger and badder than the previous movie. Result, you don’t care about the characters at all. Nada, They get right to the action. Kurt Russell the only actor I recognized was a fireman & mayor, and the only reason I know that is because it was mentioned in passing. Even the kid didn’t know anything about the ship, like in the first movie, he was there to “be in danger”. Whereas the original at least they spent the first 1/2 hour introducing the characters so you got to know them and they wonder who will survive and who will not. You actually cared, who died and rooted for the survivors to make it. The remake, I ended up reading a book during the movie because the “action scenes” dervived of any emotional connection with the fodder, er characters did not engage me at all. So for future movie watching, Redshirts will be a valuable tool for analyzing movies.