Still Life With Author Copies and Cat, Plus Audiobook News
Posted on March 13, 2017 Posted by John Scalzi 22 Comments
While I was on the JoCo Cruise, the US and UK editions of The Collapsing Empire arrived at the Scalzi Compound. Here they are, with cat for scale.
Also, there’s this tweet from last night:
And if you’re asking, “Gee, isn’t the audiobook out next week?” the answer is indeed it is! Wil would have done the narration last week, but he was on the JoCo Cruise too, with me, and on which we discussed the book while lounging on the Lido deck, as one would. Which is to say we knew this well ahead of time and scheduled everything to move quickly this week. Don’t panic, we meant to do this.
Also, it’s eight days before release date here in the US, ten days in the UK. Still enough time to pre-order your copy (via your favorite local or online retailers) so you can have your copy on the day it comes out.
Also remember that I’ll soon be on tour, with Lexington, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Richmond, Nashville, Austin, Houston, Dallas and Chicago on the first leg. If you live in one of those towns, you should come see me! I’ll be reading new stuff that no one else gets to see or hear probably for a year or so. Lots of bragging rights going on there. Plus I’ll sign your books and stuff. You know, like you do. Or at least, like I do.
Eight days! I’m really excited.
Is there a way to get the audiobook that isn’t an Amazon Audible?
As an experienced podcast narrator, I know that it’s all very well for Wheaton, but some poor schmuck is going to be working twice as many hours as he is (probably for a quarter of what he’s getting) to edit the thing. The reading part is fun, but editing it is the real work.
‘But they’re just the same book with different covers!’ Zeus complains.
So… does that make him a copycat?
But the U.K. version will have more colourful language.
For what it’s worth, I’ll sign your books and stuff too. If you really want me to.
At no point in my life have I ever had so many books on pre-order.
Granted, it’s only two, but still. It’s a momentous occasion!
I read “with cat for sale” – and thought “will they do international shipping?” ;) (our cat would never forgive us, but still…
A Cataclysmic pose . . .
Claire, I read the same thing! And since we live within a day’s drive of the Scalzi compound – well, ok, it’d be a LONG day, but still – there was one quick flash when I wondered what my spouse would say about adding a third feline to our household.
Very glad, Mr. Scalzi, to reread it correctly and confirm that you are not, in fact, evicting the majestic Zeus but merely showing the size of the books. Please give the handsome gentleman a chin-scratch from me.
Just got this month’s credit today. Pre-order submitted.
@ Claire & Colonel Snuggledorf: Me too! I was then confused. Definitely a Monday.
I am stupid excited for this! But I will be waiting a month for it! My copy is on reserve and I’ll pick it up at your tour stop in Santa Cruz! Yea me!
May I change the subject slightly?
Your lovely book “Miniatures” arrived a while back. Its very good – I especially liked Sanchez. But the free set of seven Miniatures as displayed on the cover haven’t arrived yet.
What? Not even one for free? I have to pay two filled burritos each, or the set of seven for ten burritos. I have to warn you that by the time those burritos get to you from New Zealand they aren’t going to be in a very good condition. But hey, if that’s what it costs.
And my congratulations to you for doing just the greatest deal with The Donald to let you manufacture the Miniatures in China. Yeah, I know you preferred Mexico but that Donald, he sure does drive a hard bargain.
The Collapsing Empire is also pre-ordered. I take it no free (working or otherwise) spaceship?
Sadly I cancelled my pre-order of TCE. Why you ask?
I’ll be picking up a hard-cover copy on April 17th at the Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe where I will beseech dear author to sign said book. Then, if I’m feeling cheeky, I’ll try to get a post-script from a guy named George RR Martin. True, I won’t be able to read TCE for a few weeks after you pre-orderers, but it’ll most certainly be worth the wait!
So do audiobook narrators read the book before recording begins, or do they just wing it?
My own career as a narrator began and ended in third grade, when I was volun-told to read a chapter of our Social Studies textbook into a tape recorder so the state library would have an audio copy. I feel bad for whoever ended up listening to it. That book was boring enough without adding my lifeless, monotone narration to the mix. I might be personally responsible for the failing grades of blind students all across New York State.
I desperately hope that your contract with Mr. Wheaton includes a provision for payment in burrito, as created by the author. Non-transferable.
Observation of the day: unless you’re J. K. Rowling, publishers won’t expend any effort enforcing street dates internationally….
They are printing paperback and hardcovers at the same time? I didnt know they did that. I thought the paperback was ususlly released a year after the hardcover.
We have that same blanket in pink; our cat adores it. I can tell Zeus is pumped up about the releases, too!
I think technically it is not a still life if there’s a cat in it, but still, life
I have to admit I’m not thrilled about Mr. Wheaton doing the audio book after Redshirts though part of that was the horrid dialogue tags that aren’t really his fault. Still I can enjoy the dead tree version when it hits shelves.