As an avid OSC fan, I reserved it at the library as soon as I saw on Hatrack that it was coming out. I got Magic Street from the library a couple of days ago, and finished it. (It seems like the libraries have the book a little earlier than the stores, as some other threads have mentioned...)
I'm curious to get reactions from other readers as you all finish the book.
I'm loving the concept of modern interaction of reality with fairy tales. I absolutely loved Enchantment - and made a new OSC fan of a student by "making" her read it. I would love to see OSC continue to explore this as a concept in his novels.
I can only imagine that OSC felt some trepidation exploring this world with African-American characters, so conciously setting it in a modern world with idiomatic speech. I have to applaud the attempt - that was a real risk, and I feel personally that it never felt contrived while I read it.
I would love to get into the mind of an author of OSC's caliber to find out what goes through his mind as a new work comes out. Do you get the "pre-show" jitters, similar to the feeling just before stepping on stage? Or are you fairly non-chalant about the process at this point in your career?
And since I may never get the chance to say this to someone who has made such an "indirect" effect on my life - Thank you, OSC, for the work you do. I read constantly, and ever since I picked up Ender's Game for the first time about 15 years ago, your work has enriched my life immensely.
Yikes...didn't meant to gush... Posts: 51 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I'm disappointed to see NO front of store display at B&N and Borders in Greensboro - no copies at all in Borders, and only shelved under my name alphabetically in the sci-fi section.
So much for reaching out beyond my normal readership.
I can only hope that people will like it and spread it by word of mouth. It's the only way I'll ever reach an audience broader than the one I have now. I guess I'm just disappointed that some of the work I'm proudest of sells only to a small subset of the Ender audience, while things like ... well, no examples ... hang onto the bestseller list for YEARS ...
IT's readers ... I want readers. I don't care ... much ... if everybody shares one d*** copy, I just want people to CARE about these characters that I care about so much!
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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That should answer your question about what goes through the author's mind as a book comes out. One is always afraid that THIS book will mark the beginning of the end of his career ...
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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"I'm disappointed to see NO front of store display at B&N and Borders in Greensboro - no copies at all in Borders, and only shelved under my name alphabetically in the sci-fi section."
My borders didn't have it out on the shelf either the guy had to go get it for me from the stock room, this was late in the day on the release date it should have been on the shelf.
They still had Shadow of the Giant on their new release wall. I'm just going to gander a guess that this book isn't getting as much exposure as past OSC books due to the publisher. Maybe Del-Ray didn't send out any display stands to book stores like TOR would do. Etc etc. It wasn't even listed in the Borders sales flyer for the week that I flipped through while waiting.
Oh and just for the record this book was awesome kept me turning pages for 2 days only stopping for work and sleep. If this is the beginning of the end I hope you begin the end on all your books going forward.
Posts: 29 | Registered: May 2002
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I noticed that too. Magic Street was no where in sight at Borders and I had to go on a journey to the back of Barnes and Noble to find it.
You think there should be a law that on the day a new book comes out that all book stores are required to at least have copies visible to customers on display.
On another note, there were students in my literature class (including myself) who were abhored when my professor said she had never heard of OSC. We (the sci-fi people in the class) made a case that she should have the students read Enders Game instead of ALL these very, very old works of literature that were apparently the only ones she was familiar with.
Come on now, a professor needs to strike some zest in a class instead of making them read a bunch of books they read in high school.
Posts: 44 | Registered: Jan 2005
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My Borders had it out with the new releases section.
Salah, one of my English teachers actually taught Ender's Game, but to a lower level English class (I was in Honors). I said we should read it in ours and she was like eeeeh.
Posts: 2867 | Registered: May 2005
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Ender's Game is on the required reading list at the private HS where my spouse teaches.
Posts: 1512 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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I have heard that some high schools now require Ender's Game. I think it's very sophisticated and thought provoking, even for an honor's class.
When I went into my college book store and saw the books that other professors teaching the same english course had such as The Mists of Avalon, Harry Potter, etc...it was disappointing see what my professor required- (if only that wasn't the one class I could fit into my schedule!)
Posts: 44 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Ender's Game was on my 8th grade reading list 2 years ago. I had first read it in 6th grade and dont think that it is college material.
Posts: 86 | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Orson Scott Card: I'm disappointed to see NO front of store display at B&N and Borders in Greensboro - no copies at all in Borders, and only shelved under my name alphabetically in the sci-fi section.
So much for reaching out beyond my normal readership.
I can only hope that people will like it and spread it by word of mouth. It's the only way I'll ever reach an audience broader than the one I have now. I guess I'm just disappointed that some of the work I'm proudest of sells only to a small subset of the Ender audience, while things like ... well, no examples ... hang onto the bestseller list for YEARS ...
IT's readers ... I want readers. I don't care ... much ... if everybody shares one d*** copy, I just want people to CARE about these characters that I care about so much!
I went to Borders today and it was in the new release section, in the "Summer Magic" area, where it fit in quite nicely. But it was full price, so I went to B&N, hoping to find a discount. I did not, but it was also there in the "New Arrivals" section, right at the front of the store, where I bought it. So you are getting some exposure. And you've still sold a few books, even if your exposure isn't as much as you would like. To touch that many people with your work is a great blessing.
Posts: 326 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Before I was a stay-home mommy (I am so lucky!), I ran a Waldenbooks. I always had the new OSC up front as soon as we opened on release day and I'd make an endcap dedicated to the new title and some backlist. I always felt good when I could intro someone to his work. Especially the non-Ender stuff. Not that I don't think it's fantastic, it's just that most people have heard of it. Not so many have tried Sarah or Stone Tables or my fav, Songmaster. I can't wait for my little girl to get into reading. I've got quite a collection waiting for her!
Posts: 601 | Registered: Sep 2002
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In my Sci-Fi Literature class, there would have been NO mention of OSC AT ALL if I hadn't jumped in towards the end of the semester (when we got to contemporary writers, 80's and 90's [and beyond]). It made me quite angry, especially when we had to read Brin, who writes utterly horrible things and has an ego the size of Montana...Gr.
I'd much rather have reread Ender's Game again instead of Earth.
Posts: 57 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Ender's Game can certainly be college reading. That's one of the main things I like about it - it can be read at many different levels (as only the best novels can). Case in point: I first read it when I was eleven. When I first read it I did not fully understand the significance of the multiple "games"; the Battle School game, the fantasy game, the Tactical School game, etc. I didn't uncover very much of what my English teacher sometimes calls "literary BS" (although I had an inkling, and I sort of wrote an essay about much of it.) I read it again when I was thirteen, and this time I spotted much more devices and literary things, things you have to dig for. The flipside of that is that because I was older, I partially my ability to enjoy the book and live vicariously through Ender, as I and most people do with the main character of any novel. This became true for all books the older I got. I started seeing them as the work of an author, as pieces of writing, rather than stories in which I could immerse myself and become obsessed in. And I'm reading it again right now, analyzing every detail, and not enjoying it quite as much at all. But the fact that I've seen more and more things with it in each reading means it can be read on multiple levels, and I don't see why not the college level too. After all, there is enough "literary BS" (no offense, just an expression) in Ender's Game to warrant academic, literary readings.
Posts: 28 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Well, I figured it might be like that, but one wonders if that kind of thing wears off after a while. The funny thing is, those of us who really get attached to a particular author I think feel much the same way. You finally put words to it though - we care about those characters, too!
Well, I'm looking forward to the following weekend - I've never been to a book signing before, but there's one in Madison, which is only a couple of hours from where I live. I think I'll take the plunge and drive up. I'm hoping I can find a hard-cover "Ender's Game", since mine long ago separated from the cover on the paper-back edition. I was looking at a discount book store today to find one, but they only had a paperback, and if I'm going to get it signed, I want it to last!
Which brings up a question - does an author get less royalty from a book if it's in a discount store? (I'm not talking about a used book store, but one of those like Book Warehouse or Border's Outlet where they are all 50% or more off.) Believe it or not, I always feel a little guilty buying books in stores like that - for that reason.
Posts: 51 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I went into the B&N in Baltimore the day after it came out, and they were only just putting it on display. Unless, we can hope, all the copies they'd put out the day before had already sold. Amazing book, though. Loved it all.
Posts: 1547 | Registered: Jan 2004
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The Barnes & Noble at 36th and Walnut in Philadelphia (also the official bookstore of the University of Pennsylvania) has Magic Street in the front-of-store display.
Posts: 781 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I tried for two months to get an ARC of Magic Street from Del Rey, with no success. TOR, on the other hand, is fantastic about responding to requests for galleys. It's hard to spread the advance word to a wider audience when the publisher won't share.
Posts: 80 | Registered: Jun 2005
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If a book is remaindered - selling for markedly less than half of the cover price - then the author gets, essentially, no royalty at all. The book was sold by the publisher at cost or less, simply to clear out inventory at something better than a dead loss.
This does not mean the book failed. It only means that, when the paperback has come out and the hardcover sales have fallen off drastically, there is no commercial expectation that the remaining inventory of hardcovers can be sold soon enough to justify the cost of warehousing them. That's why there are so many remaindered bestsellers - if a book has a million copies in print and sells 998,000 of them, that is one SUCCESSFUL book - but you still have those 2,000 copies. So you sell them at cost to get them out of the warehouse, and discount-only bookstores pick them up and sell them for a few bucks more than that.
The author doesn't really lose - after all, HE has the chance (usually) to buy the remainders first and sell them, autographed, online, earning those profits for himself in order to support his website habit ... <grin>.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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I'm sure it will never happen but...I think a prequel to Magic Street that focused on William Shakespeare and his interaction with the fairy world would be awesome. Maybee i'm the only one but i'd be waiting in line for that book.
Posts: 29 | Registered: May 2002
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I got my copy on Friday (Yeah!!), and finished it on Saturday. After finishing it, I was left feeling a bit...unfulfilled. It's not that the book isn't good, but the characters just never felt complete to me. I suppose that I've just been spoiled by all of OSC's other books and have come to expect the best.
::::::SPOILERS BELOW:::::::
I understood that Mack would inherently have less depth to his character because of who he was (partially), but all of the other charcters seemed to be two dimensional and just served as props to move the story forward. The motivations just didn't seem real to me, and I think that's where the magic (no pun intended) of the story lost me.
Posts: 1480 | Registered: Dec 2004
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"I'm sure it will never happen but...I think a prequel to Magic Street that focused on William Shakespeare and his interaction with the fairy world would be awesome. Maybee i'm the only one but i'd be waiting in line for that book."-Gsee
I would like to see that happen as well but i dont think that it will happen. I don't think that Magic Street will do well enough for a prequel to be made. I am not saying that I didn't like the book, but I had a hard time finding a copy and i was looking for it. I don't think the "average reader" will come upon this book (I feel sorry for those that don't).
Posts: 86 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Amazing book, though. Loved it all.
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