Pre-Orders, Concerts, Tour Notes and Other Announcements

Posted on July 23, 2015    Posted by John Scalzi      6 Comments

Some various things, involving me, all put in the same post for the sake of organization:

* As you can see from the photo above, the hardcover edition of The End of All Things is something that exists in our world. Hooray! If you want it the first day it’s out — or make sure you have it when the tour comes to your town — I strongly suggest pre-ordering it. How can you do that? Well, just call or visit your favorite local bookstore and tell them that you would like to order it. They will be delighted to pre-order it for you (because that means a sale for them). If you have no local bookstore, or you do but you and their owner are locked in a decades-long feud stemming from That Thing That Happened at Prom (or whatever), then of course you may pre-order from your favorite online retailer. Basically, if you’re in North America, there’s nothing stopping you from pre-ordering however you want.

* For those of you who are fans of audiobooks, the Audible version of The End of All Things is also available for pre-order now. This version is narrated by William Dufris and Tavia Gilbert, who longtime audiobooks fans will know have narrated the other books in the series (Gilbert did Zoe’s Tale, while Dufris has done all the others). I’m absolutely delighted to have the both of them offering up their reading talents for this one. The audiobook, like the hardcover, is scheduled for release on August 11.

* A reminder to those of you in or around Indianapolis that on July 31st — a week and a day from now! — I will be performing at the Concert Against Humanity, along with Kumail Nanjiani, Paul and Storm, Cameron Esposito, The Doubleclicks, Molly Lewis and Patrick Rothfuss. Which is to say this is going to be a fabulous concert and you should come to it. There are still tickets available, so attending is still a thing you can do. And what will I be doing at the concert? Well, it’s very likely that I will be writing up something new, exclusive and (hopefully) funny for it. Or, I will perform the whole of Warrant’s seminal 1989 album Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich, in sequence, on ukulele. Honestly, it could go either way at this point.

* On the subject of ukuleles, a couple of people have asked me if I’m really going to play the ukulele on the book tour. My answer is the same as it has been for the last couple of tours: If someone brings one, I’ll be happy to play it, although I can’t guarantee you will be happy to hear the strangled noises I will make come from it. However, one request: If you want me to play your ukulele, please make sure it’s tuned before you hand it to me. I don’t have time to tune it on the fly. Yes, I play the uke terribly, and that’s on me. But I want to be terrible and in tune, and that’s on you.

* And on the subject of the book tour, a reminder to media folks: If you want to interview me any time in the next few months, please contact my PR representative, Alexis Saarela, at “alexis.saarela@tor.com”. She is the keeper of both my tour and interview schedule, and honestly, I’m not scheduling any interviews, etc, without them going through her first. Also, if you send them to me, they’re likely to fall down into a big email hole at this point. So for both our sakes, please contact Alexis.

* And on the subject of book tours in a general sense, I along with Tayari Jones, Sloane Crosley, Nell Zink, Gary Shteyngart and Junot Diaz, am talking about book tours and what they are like in the New York Times. And yes, I talk about frosting. How could I not? As I’ve noted to folks on Twitter and Facebook, I am pleased not only that I get my first byline in the NYT (I’ve been written about in the NYT, but have not written for them), but that Athena, who took the author photo that accompanies the piece, get a photo credit, too. That’s going to look pretty sharp on a college application, I think. In any event, check out the NYT feature. It’s pretty nifty.