the upcoming Temeraire book

[ratcreature]

I've been looking at Amazon to pre-order, and it looks for this one there will be a paperback available at around the same time (publishing date June 16) as the expensive hardcover (June 14)? Does anyone know whether this is correct?

With the last couple of volumes I've ended up getting the hardcover because paperbacks were out much later, but having a hardcover is not worth paying more than twice as much for just two days earlier, especially since I've been not as into the series in the later volumes. And hardcover is harder to carry around.

But I've had Amazon advertising wrong dates before when there were multiple US/UK editions available for pre-order, and ended up pre-ordering an edition (based on picking the cheapest), that then didn't come out at that date after all. (Most recently that happened to me with Foxglove Summer, iirc.)

Comments

[ladyjanelly]

If you don't pre-order, what is the consequence? Can you wait until the 16th and see if it's available for delivery?

[ratcreature]

Well, mostly I pre-order because otherwise I forget about upcoming books, and they guarantee it won't get more expensive if the exchange rate changes in the meantime, but can get cheaper. Also if you pre-ordered often you get it right away, like they actually ship it a little earlier and you get it right the day it comes out.

And if I remembered to check it makes no difference whether I pre-ordered or not, because if the one I ordered is published later I can always cancel my order (as long as they haven't sent it yet) and switch to the other one which I did with Foxglove Summer. The reason why I prefer to pick the "right" option is that I'm bound to forget the exact publishing date of upcoming things and just don't keep track.

In this case since I have picked the paperback for now, if it turns out to be published later after all, the estimated delivery date would move back, and I'd even get a mail about the delay. The more annoying scenarios are when you pre-order the more expensive hardcover, and then later it turns out a paperback won't be published much later after all, because of course you aren't notified that there is a cheaper edition available.

[ladyjanelly]

Ah. So pre-ordering the paperback doesn't seem to have much downside, except that you might not know you should have ordered the hardback instead until a few days after the drop date...seems like a pretty safe bet.