[ExI] a new Vinge is coming

[David Lubkin]

Damien B wrote:

>I see that Vernor Vinge's The Children of the Sky, the sequel to 
>Vinge's Hugo Award-winning A Fire Upon the Deep, will be released by 
>Tor books in October. Interesting!

FWIW, Amazon discounts books more heavily if you pre-order them.
They don't bill your credit card until the book ships. If the price drops
between order and release, you get the lower price. The only
annoyance is if the book is delayed, you have to reconfirm your
order or they cancel it. And again every time it's delayed further.

With enough pre-orders, a book can become an Amazon best-seller
months before it comes out. That's useful for an author. The publisher,
libraries, retail bookstores, show bookers, etc. pay attention, and
alter their plans.

On the other hand, it's also useful for authors to go in person to
bookstores and buy out their stock. A retail sales spike generates
replenishment orders up the distribution chain.

(So do both. And ask your library to order a copy.)

It's useful for avid readers to stay on top of how bookselling and
publishing work. (It's constantly changing.) Not as much as, say,
Damien and Charlie need to but, still, you need to understand the
ways you can send signals that shape the future for the authors
and genres you like.


-- David.