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Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi is Out!

John Scalzi26 Comments

Let’s end 2016 on a high — or at least, humorous — note, shall we? Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi is now out and available! The limited, signed hardcover edition (of which there were 1,500) is now almost entirely sold out, so if you want that version, you should order it directly from Subterranean Press, and quickly. Fortunately, electronic editions of the book are cheap(!) and plentiful(!) at online retailers:

Amazon|Barnes & Noble|iBooks|Kobo

For those of you who are still unaware of what Miniatures is about, it’s a collection of my very shortest fiction — no story here over 2,300 words — with a focus on the humorous and science fictional. The stories span a quarter century of my writing, from 1991 to 2016, and the collection features four stories that have never before been published. It’s gotten some nice reviews from the trades:

“Scalzi readers will find these refreshingly concise tales delightful” — Library Journal

“Verging on the silly, but on the whole, quite amusing” — Kirkus

“Lighthearted and amusing” — Publishers Weekly

In short, if you like science fiction and also laughing, the ebook of Miniatures will be a very fine use of $6 out of your holiday gift cards.

And now, to take your questions:

Is it available internationally? I know it’s out in Canada right now, and I think it will available elsewhere, it’s just a matter of the title winding its way through retailer processing queues.

Will there be an audiobook version? Yes! It’ll come out on Tuesday. I’ll post on that specifically when it comes out.

Who did the fabulous, fabulous artwork? Why, that would be Natalie Metzger. She did the cover and internal art, and it’s all wonderful. Please hire her for all your artwork needs. She also has a Patreon. I was super pleased that she agreed to work on Miniatures. It’s a better book because she did.

Why are you releasing Miniatures on New Year’s Eve and on a Saturday? Because we wanted to!

Isn’t that unusual? Yes, generally speaking in the US, books are released on Tuesdays, and not on a holiday (or the eve of one). But this isn’t actually the first time I’ve had a book released on December 31 — The God Engines came out on News Year’s Eve, 2009, also from Subterranean Press, and that did pretty well. And of course Old Man’s War came out on January 1st, 2005. So the end/beginning of the year is a good time for my books, I would say. And also, I wanted a book out in 2016. And here we are.

Is this your first short story collection? In fact, it is — well, if you don’t count The Human Division and The End of All Things, which I guess technically are collections of short fiction, but I tend to think of them as serial novels. So it depends on how nerdy on definitions you want to be. Let me put it this way: I think of Miniatures as my first official short story collection. I think you should, too.

Will there be more short story collections? Maybe! We’ll have to look at schedules and see what works. But that’s for the future — right now we have Miniatures, and it’s good.

I hope you’ll pick up Miniatures, and I hope you’ll enjoy it. I think we could all use a good laugh these days. I think you’ll find at least a couple here. Happy reading!

26 thoughts on “Miniatures: The Very Short Fiction of John Scalzi is Out!”

  2. I woke up this morning to find my pre-ordered copy had been delivered! At least one thing good came out of this sh!t show of a year.

  4. I have been impatiently checking the tracking number for my copy, which shipped on Wednesday this week. The estimate shows it arriving on Tuesday, but I am hoping hard that proves to be “under-promise, over-deliver” and that it will appear in the mailbox today. I can’t imagine a better way to end the year!

  8. Just bought the ebook from Amazon UK for £4.80 Delivered to my Kindle here in Turkey a few minutes ago. As a 73 year old I really appreciate modern technology.

  14. I’ve had it delivered to my kindle just now, a few minutes after ordering it. I can’t wait to jump in, but for now there’s this thing called new year’s family diner… oh well. It will be a great start for 2017 though. Thank you.

  15. pre-ordered it on Audible a wee bit ago. Looking forward to whom gets added to the always interesting list of voices you manage to wrangle.

  17. My limited edition is at a facility in Cincinnati, but has an expected delivery date of Wednesday. I think, since it didn’t come today, it will likely come on Tuesday. Fortunately the link to the ebook arrived shortly before Christmas, so I’m good. :-)

  18. Amazon tells me a copy is on its way to me down at the bottom of the world in New Zealand. Amusingly, WHATEVER is telling me that I’m posting this comment on December 31st 2016 at 5.27pm. But as far as I am concerned, I am posting it on January 1st 2017 at 11.27am…

    Don’t you just love time zones?

  20. I had my preorder sent to my office, not my home, so it should be waiting for me next week. Something to look forward to!

  22. I am 4 stories in and loving this. “Alternate History Search Results” was hilarious. I’m surprised nobody has snatched up the concept of the superhero agent yet. My only concern is that it will be over soon.

  26. Hi Scalzy (sic)!

    Commenting here, since you closed today’s essay.

    Welcome to 2017. Keep bending that arc. I’ll help. I’m going to get one of those coexist bumper-stickers with symbols of 7 different world religions combined to tell people to be nicer to each other.

    I do know your name is Scalzi, but I think the ‘y’ gives it that certain rascally attitude that your humor exemplifies. No offense, just kidding.

    Hope your 2017 is better than my 2016 was, and. really except for the second week of November, when a lot of time and money went down the drain, it was OK here.

    Best wishes, keep up the good work, etc, etc.

    JR

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