Most of the stories in this book are reprints from other sources: magazines, anthologies, and even CD sleeves.

Gaiman says in the introduction that the original title for the collection was These People Ought to Know Who We Are and Tell That We Were Here, after a word balloon in a Little Nemo in Slumberland strip.

This exact line also appears in the text for the included short story "Bitter Grounds".

Fragile Things won the 2007 Locus Award for Best Collection, and "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" won for Best Short Story and was nominated for a Hugo Award.

[1] Other Locus Award winners included in this collection are "Sunbird" (2006 short story), "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire" (2005 short story), "A Study in Emerald" (2004 novelette, and also winner of the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Short Story), "Closing Time" (2004 short story), and "October in the Chair" (2003 short story).