David | April 3, 2007 07:47 AM

Woot! Congratzy!

Tatiana | April 3, 2007 08:04 AM

Beat that with a stick! Congratulations, John.

Steve Buchheit | April 3, 2007 08:15 AM

Congrats, John. "George RR Martin, Neil Gaiman and Robert Jordan" never heard of those punters :)

Carl V. | April 3, 2007 08:33 AM

Hey congrats! That is fine company indeed.

T.M. Wagner | April 3, 2007 12:47 PM

On the other hand, the therapeutic benefits of a sharp poke in the eye should not be entirely discounted, depending on whether one is the poker or the pokee.

Anonymous | April 3, 2007 01:10 PM

George RR Martin is pissing me off!

I’m 3 books in and there no end in sight, and about 300 characters to keep track of.

Old Jarhead | April 3, 2007 01:29 PM

George RR Martin = "Tuf Voyaging" a book I have bought three different times b/c I couldn't immediately find my old copy and could not wait another day to read it again - or parts of it again.

Dr. Phil | April 3, 2007 02:12 PM

I saw that ranking last night in LOCUS, too. Glad you spotted it -- congrats. Did you read Charles N. Brown's rather feisty column? He seems to be in favor of your bid for SFWA President. (You should let him know he can get a replacement for the ballot he threw away.) (grin)

Dr. Phil

Kurt Montandon | April 3, 2007 02:43 PM

This may have been covered in another post a while back, but ...

As a random example, how many actual book sales would put someone at the top of such a list? I'm kind of curious as to how well, on average, sci-fi and fantasy sells day to day. Is 1500 copies sold in a week a lot, or a little? 5000? 500?

John Scalzi | April 3, 2007 03:00 PM

Kurt Montandon:

The actual number of books sold doesn't matter for a list like this; as far as I know there's not a minimum number required. What matters is how many books are sold relative to other books on the list, at the particular bookstores polled for this list.

For example, I have a very strong suspicion that A Feast for Crows probably sold more units when it was at #1 on this list than Old Man's War sold to be #1 on the list, although in neither case do I have exact sales numbers (and I could be wrong, though I doubt it). However, in both our cases we sold more than the other guys that month. So we both get the pole position, regardless of which of us sold more units in our first month.

PixelFish | April 3, 2007 04:33 PM

I saw that and showed it to my roommate and was all, "I met him!" :) (Then I told him all about the book and where he could purchase it.)

Queenie | April 3, 2007 04:37 PM

Gratters! You should feel like you, finally, are making it as a writer!

Actually, if that was me, I'd buy myself another pint of Ben and Jerry's and throw a party.

Old Jarhead | April 3, 2007 07:39 PM

I note that John Ringo's "Unto the Breach" is on the hardback list. While John writes in the Posleen universe as SF, UTB is certainly neither SF nor fantasy (except in the sense that the "Ghost" series appeals to various male fantasies). Why is it on the Locus list?

I also note that David Weber's "On Armegeddon Reef" is #1. I have read all of Weber and greatly enjoy European political history replayed out as a space opera but Armegeddon Reef is "Heirs of Empire" replayed. Oh well, name recognition is the source of a lot of sales.