Book Launch Day!
At last, wheeze...
Book launch day, or week, is as close as I have come in my adult life to replicating the emotions of a kid on Christmas morning. (Wildly unrealistic expectations, uncontrollable greed, all my joy totally at the mercy of other people... Ripping off the packaging to find a disappointing hairbrush set when I wanted plastic horses... Ahem. Maybe other children's Christmases were not as relentlessly self-interested as mine, but, y'know, when one doesn't have a job or money or a car, and is too short to be allowed on the roller coaster, one is reduced to some pretty arcane methods of trying to get one's own way.)
By mid-February, it will all have settled to the drained, ebbing emotions of Christmas afternoon, to continue the metaphor. All of this effort, I reflect, has not much to do with the very private transaction between person and text which is the act of reading a book, and more to do with the peculiarities of the book marketing system as it has evolved, which is a whole other essay. Chasing the bestseller lists in a tight two-week time window is a snare and a delusion, for someone whose books live (and rather well, too) in the long tail in the long run, but one still can't help being caught up in one's own hype. So, not cancelling Christmas just yet. Even though this is Groundhog Day.
The latest interview is now up, here:
https://www.goodreads.com/interviews/...
I am not strictly sure how these interviews are circulated on Goodreads, whether sent out like spam, or left as bait for people to stumble over. Anyway, feel free to share the link.
Ta, L.
Book launch day, or week, is as close as I have come in my adult life to replicating the emotions of a kid on Christmas morning. (Wildly unrealistic expectations, uncontrollable greed, all my joy totally at the mercy of other people... Ripping off the packaging to find a disappointing hairbrush set when I wanted plastic horses... Ahem. Maybe other children's Christmases were not as relentlessly self-interested as mine, but, y'know, when one doesn't have a job or money or a car, and is too short to be allowed on the roller coaster, one is reduced to some pretty arcane methods of trying to get one's own way.)
By mid-February, it will all have settled to the drained, ebbing emotions of Christmas afternoon, to continue the metaphor. All of this effort, I reflect, has not much to do with the very private transaction between person and text which is the act of reading a book, and more to do with the peculiarities of the book marketing system as it has evolved, which is a whole other essay. Chasing the bestseller lists in a tight two-week time window is a snare and a delusion, for someone whose books live (and rather well, too) in the long tail in the long run, but one still can't help being caught up in one's own hype. So, not cancelling Christmas just yet. Even though this is Groundhog Day.
The latest interview is now up, here:
https://www.goodreads.com/interviews/...
I am not strictly sure how these interviews are circulated on Goodreads, whether sent out like spam, or left as bait for people to stumble over. Anyway, feel free to share the link.
Ta, L.
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rivka
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Feb 02, 2016 10:08AM
Author interviews go out with the monthly newsletter (emailed to all users who have not opted out). Likes for them will also show up on users' outgoing feeds, visible to their friends and followers.
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rivka wrote: "Author interviews go out with the monthly newsletter (emailed to all users who have not opted out). Likes for them will also show up on users' outgoing feeds, visible to their friends and followers."Interesting! It was claimed to me that the newsletter went out to 35 million subscribers, but that does not mean that 35 million will actually read it, rather than deleting it unread. Still, even a tiny fraction of that is a lot of eyeballs. It reminds me of that old publishing saw about publicity -- "We know that only 20% of book promotion works, but we don't know which 20%, so we do it all."
Ta, L.
It's Christmas for me right now since I came home to find the book resting on my laptop! My boyfriend pre ordered the signed edition for my birthday (which is in a month) and it's by far my favourite surprise ever <3 Also, you have a really pretty signature :)Thank you for an extra Christmas this year!
Katarina wrote: "It's Christmas for me right now since I came home to find the book resting on my laptop! My boyfriend pre ordered the signed edition for my birthday (which is in a month) and it's by far my favouri..."Ha, nice boyfriend! Here is me, signing (possibly) your very book:
https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
To repeat what is becoming my mantra: this is not an action-adventure tale, so don't plunge in expecting it to turn into one, lest your reading be artificially confused.
Ta, L.
Yay, a new Vorkosigan novel! :) It's nice to read that you are still excited about a launch as well.Sadly I can't order one of the signed English copies (amazon.de)- do you think they'll be available later this week/month or aren't there any for the German speaking countries? I'd rather wait than getting this novel as an e-book, that would totally mess with my LMB bookshelf at home.
Greetings from Austria, Christina
Christina wrote: "Yay, a new Vorkosigan novel! :) It's nice to read that you are still excited about a launch as well.Sadly I can't order one of the signed English copies (amazon.de)- do you think they'll be availa..."
Sorry, I have no idea how the signed limited edition is distributed.
However, if you want a signed Bujold book, personalized by request, you can get them at any time from Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore here in Minneapolis. They do mail order to all seven continents.
http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/index.s...
Ta, L.
Christina wrote: "Yay, a new Vorkosigan novel! :) It's nice to read that you are still excited about a launch as well.Sadly I can't order one of the signed English copies (amazon.de)- do you think they'll be availa..."
Hi Christina, I've found a version that seems to be the signed edition on amazon.de here:
http://www.amazon.de/Gentleman-Queen-...
I actually ordered my copy off Thalia, it was a couple euros cheaper there (however, shipping takes a little longer):
http://www.thalia.de/shop/home/sugges...
Hope that helps :)
I'm still waiting on mine. Pre-ordered a signed copy (my wife's Valentine's Day gift for me), but Amazon didn't come through on their release day delivery promise :(
I have recommended the Vorkosigan books to all my friends. Can't wait to read the new book. I've been telling everyone about it.I had no idea you'd been writing the series for 30 years. When I read the earlier books - I never felt like they were dated (and I think that about a lot of books from the 80s).
Awesome book- so nice to get back to one about Cordelia! I was afraid Amazon might not get it to me today so I waited and got it at my local bookstore (thereby also supporting said brink and mortar store)But, yes, as always, I love the book! Thank you for writing it.
We had a snow day today. I think the universe delivered it to me along with my preordered copy. I devoured it this afternoon, and loved it. I see some reviewers are mad because it wasn't whatever they thought it ought to be. I've always trusted that my favorite authors will make the book they think it ought to be, and while I never would have imagined a book like this, I thought it was perfect.I have a pretty healthy to-be-read list, but somehow, the series is calling to me for another from-the-beginning-reread.........
Thank you!
Did you know you have almost 5x more likes on this post on Facebook? 89 likes... I'm excited to receive my signed dead tree copy. I wonder if I should first do a third read-through of the entire series to maximize my enjoyment.
@Kat: thanks, that's amazing! I spent some time looking yesterday evening and probably just missed it due to fatigue... The Thalia tipp is also awesome, thanks for sharing! :)
My signed copy comes in today. I already read the eARC a while back, I cannot wait to read the official version in proper book form. I need to buy the audiobook as well to add to my collection.
Tony wrote: "My signed copy comes in today. I already read the eARC a while back, I cannot wait to read the official version in proper book form. I need to buy the audiobook as well to add to my collection."I thank you, my checking account thanks you...
:-), L.
Andrew wrote: "Did you know you have almost 5x more likes on this post on Facebook? 89 likes... I'm excited to receive my signed dead tree copy. I wonder if I should first do a third read-through of the entire se..."I think FB, overall, has more denizens, but Goodreads is more subject-focused, which I appreciate. All books, all the time...
Ta, L.
Stayed up all night reading it... I really enjoyed it!Did you always know those relationships were there when you were writing the old books where our Gentleman appears? I have to admit I was hooked and cackling in Chapter one when Cordelia is entirely Betan about it all.
Wonderful addition to the family.... can't wait for the next although I'm sure that's not what you want to hear just at this time heheh.
Hi all,I inhaled GJ&TRQ in about a day... only holding out that long because it's such a happy, rare thing to read a Bujold book for the first time. Question and a Statement/Question:
Question: does a Betan woman in midlife (70s) still have a menstrual cycle? For that matter, in an age of uterine replicators do many women who aren't trying to harvest eggs choose to have a monthly cycle? I'm not sure why this occurred to me about 3/4 of the way through the book, but it did.
Statement/Question: as the novel closed, it felt like a farewell not just to Cordelia and her story but to the Vorkosigan story itself. Cordelia has come full-circle to a quiet life in Sergyar; Miles is middle aged (by Barryaran standards) and happy-comfortable with his lot in life. I do not long for this event, this ending, this coda, but has it happened?
Sincerely,
Brad Berens
Brad wrote: Question: does a Betan woman in midlife (70s) still have a menstrual cycle? For that matter, in an age of uterine replicators do many women who aren't trying to harvest eggs choose to have a monthly cycle? I'm not sure why this occurred to me about 3/4 of the way through the book, but it did.
LMB: I did not go into the state of Cordelia's uterus, for fear of of a certain component of the readership fleeing in droves, so I didn't have to decide. As a gene-cleaned Betan, she probably hasn't suffered cancer, so she may still posses all her original organs, but the limiting factor on late reproduction is not the age of the woman but the age of her eggs. All the eggs she will ever have develop during gestation, and by 40 or 50 years on, are getting too shopworn to fertilize.
Betans usually "turn off" menstruation at puberty, until needed for egg harvesting, but by age 76 even most Betans are probably naturally menopausal. (I have no idea what may be going on with the haut. Although the ba suggest they may be experimenting with the idea of abandoning sex altogether.)
Statement/Question: as the novel closed, it felt like a farewell not just to Cordelia and her story but to the Vorkosigan story itself. ... I do not long for this event, this ending, this coda, but has it happened?."
It's certainly possible. If not "the end" -- I've tried that before, and it hasn't stuck -- it's a resting point for now.
Ta, L.
This seems like the right place to say Thank You. Thank you for all your writing -- I haven't read anything of yours that I haven't come away with memorable lines and insights, many of which are of ongoing importance to me -- but thank you very specifically for _Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen._ By whatever arcane combination of my own being at the right time/place/age/state and the experience of reading what you have to say here, this book has triggered several very basic, fundamental insights for me. (The sort of thing where you look at it and say "well, sh*t! Why didn't I figure that out when I was ten?!?") But the result has been that I am happy. (And maybe more, but it's only been a couple of weeks.) Which sounds trivial, but isn't.So thank you.
A lot.
(In case anyone is actually curious, so for the insights have been: "I don't have to. Whatever you think goes in that blank space there, it doesn't. I Don't Have To." -- and "What you want may be delayed, but that doesn't mean you can't have it.")
