Redshirts Trade Paperback Edition Out Today
Posted on January 15, 2013 Posted by John Scalzi 18 Comments
Today is not only the release of The B-Team but also the trade paperback release of Redshirts, meaning, yes! Those of you who wish to have to book in a slightly more compact, slightly cheaper print form, this is your day! Also, I imagine at some point today the price of the eBook version will drop a bit to reflect the changeover in format, so be looking for that, too.
I’ve been delighted with how well Redshirts has done out in the world; it’s my best-selling hardcover release ever and overall (including eBook and audiobook version) it’s done gangbusters. It’s fair to say that its success surprised me; I wrote it almost entirely for the sheer fun of it (“What? No one’s actually written a novel called Redshirts? Well, let me just pluck that low-hanging fruit”) and I thought it was going to be a fun little book that would do okay and kill time until The Human Division came out. But it’s clear that it’s outperformed well beyond that.
The lesson I take from that is: You never know how people will respond. Don’t worry about it and just write as well as you can. The other lesson I take from it is that all those people who think humorous science fiction doesn’t sell, or can’t sell, are really completely totally high. It sells. It sells just fine. I’ll probably talk about this a bit more at some point in the near future.
In the meantime: Look! Redshirts in trade paperback! Available at your favorite book store! If you haven’t gotten it yet, now is a fine time to do so. Also, if you want the book in hardcover, I’d hurry.
Come for the hallucinogenic alien fungus, stay for the brain-bending philosophy and deep emotional resonance.
I always like an excuse to go to the campus B&N after my biweekly office lunch. Thank you for providing one today!
Just finished *Redshirts* (hardback, from the library, yay!) and I am utterly unsurprised that it’s been selling so well. Nice work, sir.
I actually found it just after Christmas in tp at my local bookstore here in the UK. Very good read!
You know, you say it’s humor, and yes, the book is humorous, but it has a terrific depth to it as well. As someone who has written fanfiction for years (not ST, but another SF show) it gave me pause. Am I treating my characters well enough?
Of course humorous science fiction sells. HHGTTG.
Not surprising it’s doing well or that it’s your best-seller (so far). Aside from being a damn funny and smart book, with a title like “Redshirts” it will appeal to not only your normal fans but anyone familiar with Star Trek. It’s too bad that Lucas has the word “Droids” copyrighted so you can’t use that for your next book and thereby complete the nerd trifecta.
I loved it. I would also love an expansion on the “Wicked.” Just in case you are bored and out of ideas (ha).
University B&N did not have it on the front-of-store tables, nor the shelves, so I went to the info desk to ask after it, and there were three copies sitting there (next to several copies of the new WoT hardcover).
I like to think that they just sold out of what was on the shelves/front table and those copies were what couldn’t fit elsewhere.
“The other lesson I take from it is that all those people who think humorous science fiction doesn’t sell, or can’t sell, are really completely totally high.”
These people probably think that “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” is a drama.
I bought a copy after reading about it on this very blog, since I liked “Agent to the Stars” and I’m a big Star Trek fan. I loved it so much I bought a copy for a friend for Christmas. I’m tempted to loan it to my dad, who is a HUGE Star Trek fan, but I have a few qualms about loaning my dad a book with kind of risque language in it, since that’s totally not his thing.
The trick is to write actually funny humorous SF.
Finally! :) I will buy gas for John’s bug.
@Miles Archer — Indeed.
I will say once again that having Jonathan Coulton write a theme song for the book was probably responsible for many sales. In my universe of one it was responsible for 100% of the sales (as well as all the sales of Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony, Agent to the Stars, Zoe’s Tale, etc.). Before Redshirts, the song, I had no idea who John Scalzi was. Don’t take it personally, I don’t have much time to read these days so I had completely lost touch with current science fiction literature.
I haven’t read it yet, but a friend chose it as her first Scalzi book. You gained a new fan….she was expecting a funny Star Trek parody, but was pleasantly surprised by the depth and thought in the book. She’s now been directed by several of us to go back and enjoy OMW!
Yay! Now my students can buy it in paperback.
I think a big part of the reason that Redshirts has done so well is that it isn’t just a little bit of amusing fluff; it’s a whole lot richer than that. I’ve been recommending it to people left and right, telling them that it starts out like Galaxy Quest, but goes somewhere entirely more interesting.