Eagles Over the Kennebec

1. Remember that “Intelligent Design” will be retired from the Baen front page on Monday, August 15, to make way for a brand! new! story! Once it is retired, “Intelligent Design” will be added to the free eBook compilation of front page stories, which can be downloaded here.

2. “Kin Ties” will be available for free reading at Splinter Universe on August 12 (that’s Friday!). To help people who may not have read its elder brother, “Changeling,” we (that’s Steve and Sharon, acting as Pinbeam Books) are offering a more-or-less half-off coupon for the eBook. This coupon is Smashwords-specific. All you need do is go here, choose your preferred format and use coupon code KB93Q (not case sensitive) at checkout. The coupon will expire on August 12 (yep, that’s still Friday).

3. A friendly bookseller lets us know that Ghost Ship has hit the Bookscan Bestselling SF List for the week of August 1. Which isn’t too bad for a book with a pub date of August 2.

4. Speaking of Ghost Ship — there’s a nice review at SFRevu

5. Also! The editors at Amazon.com (why does a bookstore have editors? No, on second thought, I don’t want to know) have chosen Ghost Ship for inclusion in their Fall Reading Preview

6. Even cooler, Uncle Hugo’s has posted its bestsellers for July, with Ghost Ship at the top of the list — but that’s not the cool part. The cool part is that of the 12 bestselling trade editions for July, Lee and Miller books hold 11 spots, cheated — cheated, I say! — of a full house by the presence of Warrior Sheep #1. (Note to self: Get a copy of Warrior Sheep #1)

7. Proving that mere planetary divides such as oceans and hemispheres mean nothing to those who call deep space home, Ghost Ship appears on the besteller list at Galaxy Bookstore in Sydney, Australia.

8. We (that’s Steve and Sharon) are going to be traveling for a few days, with a WorldCon at the end of it. This means our access to Things Internetly will be limited, first by the conditions of the train and then because we’ll be enjoying the con. So! If you should see Ghost Ship or any other Lee and Miller book or story on a bestseller list, or see a review (Amazon reviews not counting), sing out, do!

. . .To the best of my knowledge at the moment, that’s all the news that’s fit to print. Now, I’m for the couch and the workshop papers, which I will finish today.

I may have mentioned here before how we have the Best Readers in the World. This isn’t hyperbole; it’s true. For instance, folks often write to us and ask how they can help promote the Liaden Universe® and/or a favorite/the newest novel in the series.

As it happens, one of the things that helps a new book along is something called “buzz.”  That’s when people talk about the book in their blogs, to their friends, to the barista, to co-workers — you get the picture.  “Buzz” not only tells readers who may like the new book, but who have no way of knowing it exists, about the book, it also reminds readers who have been following all things Liaden that the book is due out realsoonnow.

All righty, then. If you’re one of the few, the proud, the Incredibly Lucky who scored a signed copy of Ghost Ship weeks ahead of the release date, or if you’ve read the eArc from Baen, there are a couple things that you can do to help Theo and Bechimo along the way.

1.  You can post a reader’s review (no spoilers, please) at Barnes and Noble, which is accepting reviews now, even though it’s not shipping the book yet.

2.  You can talk about the book in your own blog, if you have one.  You may of course, use David Mattingly’s gorgeous cover in your discussion — I’ll paste it into the bottom of this entry for you.

3.  You can request that your favorite review site review the book (we have some copies of the book that we might be able to send on  — write to me at rolanniATkorvalDOTcom)

4.  You can go over to Spoilerville and talk about Ghost Ship  or to the Liaden Universe Spoiler Discussion on LJ

5.  You can inquire of your local library if they intend to acquire Ghost Ship.

6.  If you’re a member of a book club or reader’s group, you might consider bringing Ghost Ship to the group.  Tomorrow!  There will be a reader’s guide posted on Baen Books’ front page to help you get started.

7.  If you have a favorite interview site, Sharon and Steve (together or  separately) are pleased to do interviews, so don’t hesitate to recommend us.  If you have a favorite local SF convention, don’t be afraid to suggest us as Guests of Honor, we have experience.  We’ll also talk to libraries, college classes, and do live online interviews.  Suggest!  The worst that can happen is that the person you’re suggesting to says “no.”

General things to remember:  Ghost Ship did not happen in a vacuum; it’s immediate predecessor, Saltation, sold out its first hardcover print run and went to a second printing, hit the Wall Street Journal bestselling science fiction list and placed in the Top Twenty Best Science Fiction Novels of 2010 in the Locus Magazine Poll.

Also — I know I don’t have to say this to you guys, but — be polite.  If someone does say “no”?  That’s cool. We’re not everybody’s cup of tea, and neither is our work — that’s life.  Similarly, if someone says they don’t do space opera, or the book doesn’t sound like Their Thing — also cool.  Insisting  never actually convinced anybody to like something, and we all have our crotchets.

Thank you very kindly for your continued goodwill and support.

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

I hear from Mr. Blyly that he has today received 34 cases, 852 pounds, 680 individual autographed copies of Ghost Ship. In hardcover.

Yes, the street date for Ghost Ship, unsigned, is August 2. Yes, that means Mr. Blyly has received the signed books that required special handling more than a month ahead of that date. No, no one involved in this transaction knows why, but I think we can safely say that this is not Mr. Blyly’s fault. Nor ours.

I trust that this is clear.

Thirty-four cases of hardcover book makes, as I know from long experience of receiving cases of books to sign from Meisha Merlin back in the day, Quite A Large Pile there in the middle of the living-room-or-store. Mr. Blyly would, quite naturally, like to remove this impediment to commerce from the doorway and aisles of his store in as timely a fashion as possible.

So! If you want your book RIGHT NOW, and don’t care to have it personalized (there is a July 15 deadline for requesting personalization; those that request personalizations will have to wait for us — that’s Steve and Sharon — to get our sorry tails to Minneapolis sometime in the middle of August, find a pen and get to work), write to Mr. Blyly at unclehugoATaolDOTcom and tell him that you want your book mailed immediately.

If Mr. Blyly does not receive your direction to mail your book(s) immediately, he will be in honor forced to hold it/them until after the July 15 deadline for personalization requests.

I trust that this is also clear.

Excellent.

I confidently leave the matter in your capable hands.

1. Want a signed, first edition hardcover of Lee and Miller’s upcoming Ghost Ship, the Thrilling Sequel™ to I Dare and Saltation? You can pre-order yours here, but be quick, O quick! Pre-orders close on April 30.

In case you’ve missed all previous discussion of this, more details are available here, or here.

2. Pinbeam Books (aka Sharon and Steve) has been converting Adventures in the Liaden Universe® chapbooks Numbers One through Seventeen into ebooks in a seemingly random, but actually cunning, fashion, and posting them to the Kindle store and to the Nook store. We will eventually branch out to other vendors. Note the use of the word “eventually.” Also bear in mind that both editions (Kindle and Nook) are DRM-free. This means that your mobi device will be able to read chapbooks uploaded for Kindle and your ePub reader will be able to read those uploaded for Nook.

2A. A search on Adventures in the Liaden Universe in the Kindle store at Amazon should net a list of those titles currently available.

2B. A search on “Adventures in the Liaden Universe” (mind the quotes — very important) in the NookBook store at BN.com should ditto.*

3. If you were having a bad day and took refuge under a rock yesterday, I repeat — The Ghost Ship eArc is now available from Webscriptions.

3A. If you have read, or will soon read, the above-referenced eArc and want to talk about it in a spoilery fashion, I ask, on behalf of those readers who will not read the story until August, when the hardcover is published, to please make use of the Liaden Spoilers Community, here, where a lively conversation is already in play.

4. Thank you for your kind attention.

——-
*Geek Help Requested: Why can I hot-link to specific book pages on Amazon and those links function both at sharonleewriter.com and LJ, but! hot-links to specific book pages that function at sharonleewriter.com are redirected (I think by BN?) to the front page? I like to make it as easy possible to part people from their money help people buy books. Is there a (legal, non-violent) way to get around the redirect?

Thanks!

Thing One:
For those who read electrik books, classic Liaden Universe® chapbook Two Tales of Korval: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number One is now available in a Kindle edition, and! in a Nook edition*.

Plans are afoot to get Skyblaze uploaded and available before the end of the week. Watch this space for details.

Thing Two:
As advertised in all the best blogs and infodumps in cyberspace, if you want to get yourself a signed, first hardcover edition of Ghost Ship by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, you need to act and you need to act fast**!

Details here.

Thing Three:
There’s still time to vote for your favorite works of science fiction and fantasy of 2011, in the Locus Poll. The poll goes over on April 15 — that’s Friday! Locus helpfully provides titles in the drop-down lists — however! If your favorite work isn’t on the drop-down, there are *also* write-in spaces under each category. The Locus Poll is a reader poll — anyone may vote. Please only vote once, Mr. Kelly abhors ballot-box-stuffing, and please be truthful about your gender.

———
*Yes, I'm aware that the link to the Nook edition takes one not to the book page, but to the Nook front page.  No, I don't know why that's happening.  The URL is correct, and the link works from the original blog entry at sharonleewriter.com.  Stupid intertubes.

**Where fast = Before April 30, 2011.


 

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Reminder, that is.

Today, which is in the Northern Hemisphere, April 1, colloquially designated April Fools/All Fools Day, at midnight Eastern Daylight Time, the windows for pledges to purchase one or more signed first-run hardcovers of Ghost Ship, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, which is scheduled to be released by Baen Books in early August, will close.

I append to this reminder the directions for making a pledge. Following the directions counts. Shout-outs and emails (panicked or otherwise) to addresses other than those listed in the directions will not be included in the final count. Yes, it’s hard. That’s life.

Just a word about what comes after the pledge period closes. We will tomorrow pass The Number of Pledges to Mr. Blyly at Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore in Minneapolis. Mr. Blyly will enter into negotiations with Baen Books and place an order. After that — we don’t know when — we — that’s Steve and Sharon — will receive a Big Pile of pages of sign. We will do our thing and return the pages, which will be bound into the books pre-ordered by Mr. Blyly.

Somewhat before the above — we don’t know exactly when — Mr. Blyly will put up an ordering page so that you may actually place an order for your book(s). When that page goes up, we will shout its URL from the rooftops. Watch this space. Watch your email for another InfoDumpling. Watch Facebook, Twitter and LJ.

And, now, the directions:

*If you will buy a signed copy of GHOST SHIP by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (no fibbing, now), write to ghost_shipATkorvalDOTcom and *say so* BEFORE APRIL 1, 2011

*If you have questions about this Crazy Idea, write to fledglingATkorvalDOTcom

*This is a preliminary count only. Do not sent shipping info to this address. See next point.

*Once we have a count, and assuming that count equals or exceeds 100 books, Uncle Hugo’s will set up a pre-order webpage. We will publish the URL of this webpage in all venues available to us, just like we’ve posted this InfoDumpling. You will have to go to this page and ACTUALLY ORDER your book(s). Your credit card will not be charged until your book has actually shipped.

*If the initial promise does not meet the 100 book mark, there will be no signed copies available.

*Signed copies of GHOST SHIP will not (that’s NOT) be available directly from Lee and Miller.
Thank you for your patience and support.

Reminder the First: There is still time to pledge for a signed first edition hardcover of Ghost Ship by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, the sequel to both I Dare and Saltation, to be published by Baen Books in August of This! Very! Year! Instructions are here. Posting “I Want One” in comments is not a pledge. We’re writers and we’re being asked to count. That means we need to have all of the things we’re counting in one place. So! Follow the directions please. As of this writing, we have approximately 425 books pledged, and the sky’s the limit, so if you want one, sing out!

Reminder the Second: There’s still time to vote in the Locus Poll for Best Works of science fiction and fantasy of 2010. This is a readers’ poll; anyone may vote until closing on April 15. If you don’t find the work(s) you most favor in the drop-down menus, spaces have thoughtfully been provided for write-in votes. You will be asked for your gender — please be truthful. And please — only vote once.