How to Get Signed and Personalized Scalzi Books for the Holidays, 2014
Posted on November 10, 2014 Posted by John Scalzi 6 Comments
Once again the holiday season is approaching, and once again I am teaming up with Jay & Mary’s Book Center, my local independent bookseller, to offer signed and personalized books for gift-giving. It’s a great way to get a unique gift for someone you love (even yourself!) while at the same time supporting a great local business that does a fantastic job in its community.
So: How do you get signed and personalized books from me this year? It’s simple:
1. Call Jay & Mary’s at their 800 number (800 842 1604) and let them know you’d like to order signed copies of my books. Please call rather than send e-mail; they find it easier to keep track of things that way.
2. Tell them which books you would like (For example, Lock In), and what, if any, names you would like the book signed to. If there’s something specific you’d like written in the books let them know but for their sake and mine, please keep it short. Also, if you’re ordering the book as a gift, make sure you’re clear about whose name the book is being signed to. If this is unclear, I will avoid using a specific name.
3. Order any other books you might think you’d like, written by other people, because hey, you’ve already called a bookstore for books, and helping local independent bookstores is a good thing. I won’t sign these, unless for some perverse reason you want me to, in which case, sure, why not.
4. Give them your mailing address and billing information, etc.
5. And that’s it! Shortly thereafter I will go to the store and sign your books for you.
If you want the books shipped for Christmas, the deadline for that is December 10. That way we can make sure everything ships to you on time. Hey, that’s a month; more than enough time for you to make your selections.
Also, this is open to US residents only. Sorry, rest of the world. It’s a cost of shipping thing.
What books are available?
CURRENT HARDCOVER: Lock In, The Mallet of Loving Correction (The latter is already signed but I will be happy to personalize it). Also in hardcover: The 21st Century Science Fiction anthology, which contains my story “The Tale of the Wicked.” I’ll be pleased to sign the anthology for you. Likewise, there may still be copies of the signed, limited hardcover edition of my Unlocked novella — go ahead and ask if they can special order.
CURRENT TRADE PAPERBACK: Redshirts (the 2013 Hugo Award winner!), Metatropolis. There may be hardcovers of both of these still around if you ask. But both are definitely in trade paperback.
CURRENT MASS MARKET PAPERBACK: The Human Division, Fuzzy Nation, Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony, Zoe’s Tale, The Android’s Dream, Agent to the Stars, The New Space Opera 2.
CURRENT NON-FICTION: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded (essay collection, Hugo winner), Book of the Dumb, Book of the Dumb 2 (both humor books) are all still in print.
AUDIOBOOKS: The Human Division, Redshirts, Fuzzy Nation, The God Engines, Metatropolis and Agent to the Stars are all available on CD and/or MP3 CD, and Jay & Mary’s should be able to special order them for you. Lock In will also be available on CD/MP3 CD starting December 2.
Two things regarding audiobooks: First, if you want these, you should probably call to order these ASAP, even Lock In. Second, and this is important, because the audiobooks come shrinkwrapped, I will have to remove the shrinkwrap in order to sign the cover. You ordering a signed audiobook means you’re okay with me doing that and with Jay & Mary’s shipping it to you out of its shrinkwrap.
If you have any other questions, drop them in the comment thread and I’ll try to answer them.
Also: This year Jay & Mary’s will also be offering signed, personalized books from Tobias Buckell for holiday shipping. So if you’ve been looking for signed books from Toby, including his latest, Hurricane Fever, this is the place! Toby has details on his site.
Happy shopping and especially thanks for supporting Jay & Mary’s. They’re good people and every year they do a good job with this. I’m happy to be working with them again on this.
And thank you!
I think it’s great that you have a mutually beneficial relationship with a nearby independent bookstore. But until now (having seen the photo of the store in earlier similar posts) I hadn’t noticed: Judging from the condition of the vehicles shown, a 1988-91 Pontiac Bonneville SSE and a mid-’90s Ford Explorer, this photo must be at least 15 years old, perhaps even 20.
I took advantage of this last year and was VERY happy with the results. I ended up getting my books on Christmas Eve but they were a nice early Christmas present to myself. Jay was extremely nice and helpful on the phone and there were no issues whatsoever in the transaction. John, if you do something like this every year I promise you that I will take advantage of it. I’d love to have an entire bookcase of signed Scalzi volumes in my house.
I will be buying Lock In for folks, this year. I just finished it and Unlocked, last week, and I have to agree with the reviewers, it’s Scalzi’s best book, by far. I hope there are more in that universe. It’s a great vehicle for an SF mystery series. I’m always sad that there aren’t more SF whodunnits.
“Please call rather than send e-mail; they find it easier to keep track of things that way.”
Except that when I called last year, it took three attempts for them to hear my “mailing address and billing information? Perhaps they could come up with some type of compromise between old school and new school checkout system?
And my signed copy of RedShirts came in a beat up package to boot!
Is there ever going to be a hardcover printing of Old Man’s War?
GMTB: The first edition of Old Man’s War was in hardcover, with different cover art (by Donato Giancola; see http://www.donatoart.com/sf/oldman.html).