31 Comments on “A Nice Thing to Wake Up To”

1. In the words of Philip Henslowe in “Shakespeare in Love”: “Let us have pirates, clowns, and a happy ending…. You see – comedy, love, and a bit with a dog. That’s what they want.”

2. Dogs, but not cats. To where is fiction going?

3. Rich:

   Cats get the Internet. Giving dogs fiction seems a fair trade.

4. As long as you don’t kill the dog, you’re golden! (Although I do own one work where that happens and actually like the way the author worked it out.)

5. Golfing for Dogs?

6. Congrats! Can’t wait to read it.

   I just finished a book that features probably the strongest dog character I’ve ever read.
   Suspect, by Robert Crais. Looked it up and it’s currently #16 on Amazon’s Mystery Best Sellers. Great story. Love me some dogs.

7. So does the 2nd novel of Shadow War of Night Dragon have to have “dog’ in its title?

8. Well, I don’t know that cats “get” the Internet. More like, they schemed and seized power before anyone noticed. And dogs are super thrilled to get anything from a human.

   Still. People love dogs and royalty. I figure you take that and combine it with a strategic deployment of a definite article – or two – and whamo, you got you some sales gold.

   I think the title would be enough. Not sure it would actually have to be about, for example, an actual Duke of Dogs named Duke who’s an irascible scamp of a dog that looks out for all his dog friends but runs into trouble when it’s time for him to take some real responsibility of consequence for his friends.

   I think that might actually be a mashup of All Dogs Go To Heaven and Lady and the Tramp. But, my point stands.

9. Congrats on the Amazon sales. I suspect that there are many more fans like me who’ve decided to wait for the full ebook version. I read the first three installments as they were released but decided I don’t like the short individual episodes and prefer to read the entire story at once and don’t mind waiting a few more weeks to buy it. It was a good experiment by you and your publisher and I’m glad it seems to be working but it’s not for me.

10. How do we see this Best Selling Amazon SF list?

11. Howard Brazee:

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/digital-text/158591011/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_kstore_1_5_last

    It’s updated hourly, so no guarantees that when you view it that “The Dog King” will still be at #1.

12. BTW Congratulations. Number 1 is awesome! I’m also much obliged to ya for getting me to again pick up my (disturbingly heavy) Kindle Fire…

13. John, adding dogs to everything you write will have you following in the grand tradition of Dean Koontz, and I think that’s a good thing. I’m enjoying each episode of THD as it comes out.

14. I am really enjoying the human division. I pre-ordered it through the non-amazon source and when it turned out that I would have to plug in my kindle and re-figure out how to transfer it I just started buying each story from amazon.

    No regrets about buying it twice, enjoy the extra money.

15. Congratulations. I am enjoying the Human Division stories a great deal. The weekly episodes work for me. I hope it is successful enough that both you and others consider releasing more works this way.

16. I don’t know how anyone can wait for the “complete” ebook, especially after reading a few of the episodes. I can wait for the Subterranean Press limited super special signed limited edition bound in genuine synthetic Rhery-hyde, in oder to have a physical copy – but I can’t wait that long to READ it!

    and to Bonelady – I can’t tell ouwithout spoilers weather or not the dog “dies”
    :)

17. I liked the first couple of episodes so much I went ahead and preordered the lot. Dogs are okay. Cats should do well. Also sloths are very big these days. Slow, but charming. Space sloths would be amusing.

18. When this run ends I hope you post some numbers that show how people purchased the series. Did it start off strong and peter out? Did it maintain? Did it mostly maintain and drop off a little? If sales did drop can you point to specific chapter where it happened? That sort of stuff would be fun to look it.

19. My first thought on seeing this available was “Hey, it must be Tuesday! Cool!” My second thought was “Ok, how long has he been waiting to use that title?”

20. number one and seven more in the top 40!

21. And fifteen in the top 100. Which, I’m not gonna lie, doesn’t suck at all.

22. The Human Division is fantastic and I love the episodic format. It does not surprise me in the least that you’ve made it to #1. My girlfriend and I have been buying them as they come out (though she’s a little behind me at the moment) and I love having something to look forward to every Tuesday. I do hope you consider doing another one this way. Or, ya know, just keep writing. I’m perfectly okay with, and confident in, that as well.

23. The episodes are filling up screen space in my kindle though. It would be nice if there was a way to consolidate them into one book when finished (samples and full novels have the same problem).
    If you had set it up as a magazine subscription, that would use one slot in the kindle screen.

24. The Dog King became even more entertaining when I replaced every instance of “Llasa Apso” with “Pomeranian” and replaced “Tuffy” with “Muddle”.

25. Why not release your next book as a 100-part serial and see if you can dominate the entire list?

26. Kevin: Since there’s no DRM, you should be able to combine them all with Calibre. You may have to export them into an HTML or RTF file, but then you can combine those, and turn the combined file into an ebook again.

27. FIFTEEN. That’s awesome.

28. Eagerly awaiting “The Doggie Division” with genetically modified CDF canids. ;-)

29. I’m already worried about what I’ll do Tuesday AMs when there isn’t a new Scalizi to read…

30. Amazing! The Sound of Rebellion is #70 and doesn’t even come out until next Tuesday!

31. John, you’re getting hackneyed…does your overall theme of the series remind you of anyone? Didja ever read of “Retief”, by Keith Laumer?