News

The Right Book

The Bookseller

My Bookseller Magazine story about the future of bookselling: The Right Book

For the 150th anniversary issue of The Bookseller (the world's oldest publishing trade magazine), the editors commissioned me to write a short-short story about the next 150 years of book sales. The result is called The Right Book, and it's out in the current edition and online as well.

The thing that Arthur liked best about owning his own shop was that he could stock whatever he pleased, and if you didn't like it, you could just shop somewhere else. So there in the window were four ancient Cluedo sets rescued from a car-boot sale in Sussex; a pair of trousers sewn from a salvaged WWII bivouac tent; a small card advertising the availability of artisanal truffles hand made by an autistically gifted chocolatier in Islington; a brick of Pu'er tea that had been made in Guyana by a Chinese family who'd emigrated a full century previous; and, just as of now, six small, handsomely made books.

The books were a first for Arthur. He'd always loved reading the things, but he'd worked at bookshops before opening his own little place in Bow, and he knew the book-trade well enough to stay well away. They were bulky, these books, and low-margin (Low margin? Two-for-three titles actually *lost* money!), and honestly, practically no one read books anymore and what they did read was mostly rubbish. Selling books depressed Arthur.

These little buggers were different, though. He reached into the window -- the shop was so small he could reach it without leaving his stool behind the till -- and plucked one out and handed it to the kid who'd just asked for it. She was about 15, with awkward hair and skin and posture and so on, but the gleam in her eye that said, "Where have you been all my life?" as he handed her the book.

Link to page 1/2,
Link to page 3

Link to text-based version

After the Siege (Subterreanean Press), Part 5

Here's part five of Subterranean Press's free podcast of my story After the Siege, which won the Locus Award for best science fiction novella of 2008 last night in Seattle, read by the wonderful sf writer (and talented voice actor) Mary Robinette Kowal.

MP3 Link

After the Siege (Subterreanean Press), Part 4

Here's part four of Subterranean Press's free podcast of my story After the Siege, which won the Locus Award for best science fiction novella of 2008 last night in Seattle, read by the wonderful sf writer (and talented voice actor) Mary Robinette Kowal.

MP3 Link

After the Siege (Subterreanean Press), Part 3

Here's part three of Subterranean Press's free podcast of my story After the Siege, which won the Locus Award for best science fiction novella of 2008 last night in Seattle, read by the wonderful sf writer (and talented voice actor) Mary Robinette Kowal.

MP3 Link

After the Siege (Subterreanean Press), Part 2

Here's part two of Subterranean Press's free podcast of my story After the Siege, which won the Locus Award for best science fiction novella of 2008 last night in Seattle, read by the wonderful sf writer (and talented voice actor) Mary Robinette Kowal.

MP3 Link

After the Siege (Subterreanean Press), Part 1

Here's part one of Subterranean Press's free podcast of my story After the Siege, which won the Locus Award for best science fiction novella of 2008 last night in Seattle, read by the wonderful sf writer (and talented voice actor) Mary Robinette Kowal.

MP3 Link

Podcast of After the Siege from Subterranean Press

Subterranean Press just released a free podcast of my story After the Siege, which won the Locus Award for best science fiction novella of 2008 last night in Seattle. The reader is the wonderful sf writer (and talented voice actor) Mary Robinette Kowal, who really nailed her performance. I'm so happy about this!

Link

(Thanks, William!)

See also: Locus Award winners announced -- After the Siege is best novella 2008!

After the Siege wins the Locus Award!

Last night, Locus Magazine held its annual Locus Awards Ceremony in Seattle, the winners include several of my favorite books of the year -- and my novella, "After the Siege" -- which was collected in my short story collection Overclocked and adapted for comics in my new collection Cory Doctorow's Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now". (The story's first publication was in the Russian magazine Esli, and the translation is also downloadable).

Many thanks to all who voted for this story, to Eileen Gunn for publishing the story and accepting the award on my behalf, and especially to my grandmother, Valentina Rachman, for sharing her stories of life as a child-soldier in the civil defense corps during the Siege of Leningrad.

SF NOVEL
The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)

FANTASY NOVEL
Making Money, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK; HarperCollins)

YOUNG ADULT BOOK
Un Lun Dun, China Miéville (Ballantine Del Rey; Macmillan UK)

FIRST NOVEL
Heart-Shaped Box, Joe Hill (Morrow; Gollancz)

NOVELLA
"After the Siege", Cory Doctorow (The Infinite Matrix Jan 2007)

NOVELETTE
"The Witch's Headstone", Neil Gaiman (Wizards)

SHORT STORY
"A Small Room in Koboldtown", Michael Swanwick (Asimov's Apr/May 2007)

COLLECTION
The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories, Connie Willis (Subterranean)

ANTHOLOGY
The New Space Opera, Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan, eds. (Eos)

NON-FICTION
Breakfast in the Ruins, Barry N. Malzberg (Baen)

ART BOOK
The Arrival, Shaun Tan (Lothian 2006; Scholastic)

EDITOR
Ellen Datlow

MAGAZINE
F&SF

PUBLISHER
Tor

ARTIST
Charles Vess

Link

Interview with Chicago Red Eye

Last month while on my Little Brother book-tour, I sat down for an interview in Chicago with Elliott Serrano from the Chicago Red-Eye.

MP3 Link

Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com is proudly powered by WordPress
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).