Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

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My Books of Electrons! (Updated)

One of the most frequent queries I get is: “Are your books e-books yet?”

For a long time, they were not and I could only respond in the negative. This was never a very satisfactory reply. Not for me, because I dreamed of having books of electrons, and piteously begged my publishers to make it so.1 And certainly not for the would-be purchaser of said electrificated tomes.

“No, sorry they’re not,” I would say mournfully.

They would demand to know, “Why? What is wrong with you that your books are only available as piles of extruded wood pulp? Electrify your novels at once!”

This led to me having to explain how it’s beyond my control. They never believed me just as no one believes John Malkovich in Dangerous Liasions. No amount of talk of contracts and publishers reserving the right and blah blah blah ever convinced them that I was not being willful and obstreperous. Their eyes would glaze and they’d walk away.

They weren’t happy. I wasn’t happy. There was SO MUCH UNHAPPINESS!

But now, at long last,2 I do not have to have that upsetting conversation anymore because:

All of my novels are now available as e-books in North America and some of them are on sale right now.

Let there be rejoicing!

Yes, even the first book of the Magic or Madness trilogy, which is called, wait for it, Magic or Madness. Their wise publisher deemed it absurd to have the first book in the trilogy available when readers could just skip to the second and third book. But no longer! You can download all three in any format for any device you wish to purchase them on. Halelujah!

The anthology I edited with Holly Black, Zombies versus Unicorns, is also available on all devices. And is currently available for the bargain price of $3.99 which is ludicrously cheap. Love is Hell which includes my short story “Thinner than Water”3 is also available on every device known to humanity.

Meanwhile Liar and How To Ditch Your Fairy are available for Kindle and the Nook and I think other devices but only HTDYF is available via ibooks. They are, however, currently available for the low, low price of $4.79, which, BARGAIN.4

Team Human by me and Sarah Rees Brennan will be available in all formats going, which is how I like it.5 I don’t know when or how much it will cost. Though 3 July 2012 is the current publication date for the paper version in North America.

Some of you Australians and New Zealanders may be wondering, “What about us? Can we access these e-books?”

I am investigating and it looks like only Zombies versus Unicorns is definitely available in e-book form. You can get it from Readings and Read Without Paper. I hope that in the not too distant future all my books will be yours for the push of a button. We are living in the future!

So, how many of you actually consume e-books? I do. In vast numbers. Usually books that in the past I would have bought in paperback. When I truly love an e-book I tend to buy a hard copy. It has made a huge difference to travelling. I never run out of books now.

On the other hand, as a bunch of us were discussing on Twitter, formats becoming obsolete scares me. I have floppy discs from the olden days . . . So useful! So glad I backed all my early writing on those little babies.

This post brought to you by demonic voice recognition software. Apologies for brevity, wrong word choices, weird syntax and occasional incomprehensible swearing.

Update: All my Allen & Unwin books are now available on multiple platforms in Australia and New Zealand. Those books are How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, Zombies Versus Unicorns and Team Human.

  1. Or, well, okay, I begged my lovely agent Jill who in turn. You know how it goes. [↩]
  2. Well, actually I think they’ve all been available for almost a year now. But what with my RSI problems and voice [mis]recognition annoyingware it has taken a long time to write this post. [↩]
  3. Nope, I will not explain the title. Figure it out yourself! [↩]
  4. I had nothing to do with them being on sale. How much books cost is yet another thing we humble authors are not consulted on. [↩]
  5. Down with exclusivity! [↩]

Posted by Justine at 14:35, 7 November 2011 under Admin, Fans & readers, How To Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, Magic or Madness trilogy | 5 Comments »

Comments

  1. Matt R Says:

    Yay! USian reader here who was very happy to discover How to Ditch Your Fairy was available on Kindle a couple months ago and really enjoyed it. Zombies V Unicorns wants next.

    November 7th, 2011 at 3:21 PM

  2. Mannie Says:

    This is good news for me. I’ve wanted to read Magic or Madness for a while, but I couldn’t find a store that carried it. It’s always exciting to download a new book! ;) I actually thought that more authors were digital than tangible because it was becoming too expensive to have paper books. I guess I was wrong. I’m glad to hear that your books are now digital!

    November 7th, 2011 at 4:04 PM

  3. allreb Says:

    Oooh, I am a big consumer of ebooks. I like that they’re often at least a buck or two cheaper than the paper counterparts, often easier to carry in my purse, and mostly I like the instant gratification of not actually needing to get off my couch in order to acquire new reading material. (That has, of course, been very, very bad for my wallet.)

    November 7th, 2011 at 6:16 PM

  4. Clix Says:

    Oooo. I am going to have to read your story to see if my figuring is right, cuz I’m figuring it has to do with blood, which is often said to be thicker than water, which means that if it isn’t, there must be a story for WHY it isn’t.

    Besides. I’ve read the rest. ;)

    November 8th, 2011 at 2:00 AM

  5. 5. Justine Says:

    Clix: You are exactly right. I was playing on the expression “blood [i.e. family] is thicker than water.”

    December 31st, 2011 at 11:00 AM

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