ARIEL is officially released today. Cory Doctorow, bless him, released a Boingboing piece on it this morning. Weirdly, I went to Barnes & Noble yesterday to pick up a copy of Cory’s short story collection OVERCLOCKED, because I’ve been reading his essays on intellectual property in the digital age for a while now, and after meeting him at Worldcon I was definitely intrigued to see what his fiction is like.
The B&N had a bunch of copies of ARIEL in two different locations. I was a bit surprised, because they’re usually pretty strict about not displaying until the official release date. Guess I ain’t J K Rowling. Am I complaining? Hellno!
At first it just seemed kinda cool. Oh, look, my book’s out already. Swell! Then I thought about how long it had been since I had a book out on a bookstore shelf somewhere (at least, a non-used-book store). I’ve published (and not published) a decent amount since ARIEL in various media and categories (though to read the reactions & PR you’d think I went to a Himalayan retreat for decades, what’s up with that?). But even so, it’s been a long time since I had a book out (and with my name spelled correctly, Sooper Bonus Points fer that!). And it hit me oddly. A sort of glad melancholy. It feels good.
But I’ll be honest: it’s ELEGY BEACH I’m really waiting for.
And you know, I felt sorta giddy when I saw it on the shelves at Borders…here I wasn’t expecting to lay hands on it until after my vacation, and they put it out almost 12 days early (I assume only that, it could have been out earlier than that Friday I bought it!!)…Great book, liked the foreword in it BTW…and I still look forward to the Tolkien tip of the hat …even after all these years, it still sticks with me.
Congratulations! It should be interesting to see where word-of-mouth takes it this time around, now that word-of-mouth has become word-of-keyboard with a far greater reach.
Please please push for your books to come out in Kindle or ebook format? I have been eagerly awaiting them! I know its more the onus of the publisher but if you have a chance to let them know, there’s a huge Kindle community out there! Gratz on the releases!
Thank you! The comments on Cory’s blog are already wonderful, and ARIEL has debuted on Amazon at #273 for all books. Which ain’t nothin’ to sneeze at for a 25-year-old reprint!
One thing I didn’t mention in my Worldcon report was how startled I was a the number of people who approached me to tell me how much they’d liked ARIEL and how glad they were it was about to be reprinted. It sold very well when it was released, but it’s clear that used copies made the rounds like crazy. I’m hoping everyone who read it buys a copy for their very own. 🙂
Stephen B-
Thank you for asking! I’m delighted to report that ARIEL will be out in e-book format in two weeks; I have it from the horse’s mouth it will be available in Kindle. ELEGY BEACH will be an e-book also. Both will also be unabridged audiobooks (ARIEL is showing up now; it’s already at audible.com; I’ll be blogging about the audiobook production soon, as I’m very jazzed about it).
Hey Steve,
Another adoring fan here, so hyped that you’ve got a sequel coming out.
Question: Does the new edition differ from the original printing? Any new chapters, changes or such?
WTC still in there?
Awesome sauce Steve! I mean not to cut down paper books (hah get it!) but love to do the digital book thing. I am one of the people who missed Ariel the first time around but have always heard about it. Glad its getting some good press!
brian–
Thanks very much! The ARIEL reprint has a restored chapter involving George and his family; some minor updates to remove some of the more glaring anachronisms; and a lengthy Afterword and notes about ARIEL’s creation, publication history, background info, and addressing some questions that have been asked by readers over the years. I worked closely with my truly wonderful editor, Anne Sowards, on this and am delighted at the opportunity to present a much more definitive edition.
This is also a good opportunity to give a major shout out to Ace’s copyeditor and proofreader on ARIEL & ELEGY BEACH. They did an absolutely stellar job.
Rockin’, new words make me a happy camper. I just ordered a new copy of that sucker!
New words will sell me a copy too! Besides, my copy is showing its age…just a bit. *cough* And now I can hand a copy on to my kids without worry that it’s going to disintegrate!
Thank you, Wendy! Alas, its author is showing its age, too, though worries about my disintegration are greatly exaggerated.
Steve, your a couple years older than I ….and you look tons better than me, so please…you have no room to say anything about age (LOL)
It must be all that clean living I’ve done. 🙂
LOL…must be…damn my old hide…I need to get on the road, and walk all this extra off me…LOL…but then, it might be the 20yrs in the Navy that did me in..