Monday, December 08, 2008

Book Signing with Orson Scott Card, Edmund Schubert, Scott Roberts, and James Maxey

Last Friday (Dec. 5) we held a joint signing at the Barnes & Noble in Greensboro, NC to promote the InterGalactic Medicine Show anthology, as well as new novels by three of the four people involved in the anthology.

Orson Scott Card (far left) is, of course, the linchpin of the anthology, serving as the magazine's publisher, and contributing stories set in the Ender Universe to each issue.

The unimaginably handsome devil next to OSC is the editor of the magazine (that would be me, Ed Schubert).

Next in line is Scott Roberts, a Writer's of the Future winner and contributor to the magazine and the anthology, and at the far right is James Maxey, also a contributor to the magazine and anthology. James' most recent contribution, "Silent As Dust" was recently selected to appear in The Year's Best Fantasy 2009, edited by Rich Horton, so a big congratulations to him.

Orson was also signing his newest novel, Ender In Exile, while I was signing copies of Dreaming Creek, and James was signing copies of Dragonforge, which came out last August. We just about sold out of the IGMS anthology, and sold about three-quarters of the case of Dreaming Creek my publisher sent, so I was pleased with that. I have no idea how many of the other books were sold, but judging by the line in front of Orson (which lasted over ninety minutes after the rest of us were done), he had to have sold two or three hundred thousand copies.

I was very happy with my part of the sales, largely because the bookstore was happy. They said I could come back any time and do a solo signing, and they also asked me to autograph the remaining copies of Dreaming Creek and then they put them out in the store, not on a shelf, spine out, but on a table, face up, where everyone could see them. That was very gratifying.

So thanks to everyone who came out, and thanks to everyone who bought all of our books, whereever you may have purchased them.

2 comments:

Fiber said...

Ed; A year or so ago I attended OSC's discussion and signing at the B&N here in G'boro, and when I recently saw the sign above the B&N doors with Orsons name on it, I thought he was doing the same again for his new novel. What a pleasant surprise when I arrived and found out that it was really an event for the IGMS anthology!

I throughly enjoyed the discussion and the readings by Maxey and Roberts. I wish I could have stuck around to pick up a copy of the anthology and have it signed, but the wife and kids were waiting on me for dinner. Hopefully I'll pick up copy of the anthology here soon.

Edmund R. Schubert said...

Fiber,

Glad you came and gladder still enjoyed the discussion and readings. The line for Orson's autograph was a little daunting, so I can't blame you for going home. But if you like short stories, the anthology is worth tracking down (not that I'm biased... ;-)).