Five (Three sir!) Three quick Sunken Treasure items:
1. I was interviewed for the Lulu blog about the book. Fun fact: It was while I was writing the answers for this interview that I sent Twitter the fateful question about $5 DRM-free PDFs. I finished my answers and sent them back right before I put the PDF version on sale, so the incredible success and overwhelming response to the PDF isn't reflected my answers.
2. Speaking of the PDF: Sometime overnight, the total PDF sales exceeded the total print sales. I've still earned more via print sales, though PDF is rapidly catching up. Here's something cool about the gap between them: whenever it looks like PDF is going to overtake it, a bunch of people (presumably because they read the PDF) buy the print copy, and it leaps ahead. I wish I could do an animated visualization of the sales, like a little horse race, because it sure would look awesome.
I never would have done this if Cory Doctorow hadn't put the idea into my head (and so many other heads) years ago. I see some chatter around the 'tubes giving me credit for blazing a trail, and I'm really not; I'm just walking the path Cory told us was there all along, if we were just willing to take it.
Still, I really hope my story about this little book and how I've released it inspires other indie authors (and big, successful, mainstream authors, too) to do something similar. I don't know what it would be like for other creators, but it's been an unqualified success for me, and I want all of you who have been involved in this to know how grateful I am. Because you've chosen to support my work in the past and especially with this release, I'm going to do a bunch of original stuff this year that's above and beyond what I already do on my blog. A big part of Operation Crazy Idea was to find out if I could make Kevin Kelly's model work, and for the first time since I got the crazy idea, it feels like it's a real, tangible, I-can-almost-see-it-just-over-the-horizon possibility. I am incredibly optimistic about the potential for the other projects I'm working on right now, and if they work out the same way Sunken Treasure has, 2009 is going to be The Year When It All Happened. \m/
3. Finally, Val Trullinger, who created gorgeous flyers and banners for The Happiest Days of Our Lives, created some gorgeous flyers and banners for Sunken Treasure. Feel free to grab them and use them however you'd like, if you're into that sort of thing. Small request: please don't hotlink them; bandwidth is expensive.
Small banner:
Big banner:
Both banners and a PDF flyer:
Download Sunken_Treasure_Promos (1MB Zip file with both banners and PDF flyer)
Out of curiosity, have you considered setting yourself up as a company (assuming you haven’t already done so) and self-publishing through another company like LightningSource? You have to pay for things like ISBN numbers and manufacture and authorization of the proof, but as a bonus your books get listed on places like Amazon (US, UK, Canada, the lot), The Book Depository, Barnes & Noble… people will even be able to walk into their local bookstore and order a copy, too. You’ll probably end up with a bigger slice of the pie, as well.
I ask because SoulGeek and I partnered up to get the first Jump Leads collection out there; we’re using LightningSource and we’re very impressed with the quality. Just wondering if it’s something you’d thought about.
What is “Kevin Kelly’s model”? Are we talking about the Kevin Kelly of Wired magazine? One of my favourite books is his “Out of Control” and I am a real big fan of his various lectures. With all that said, I am very interested in what his model is… Did I miss a blog post of yours mentioning it?
Once again, congrats on this success, sir.
And once again, thanks for putting crazy ideas that might be awesome in my head, too. If I ever take the plunge, I’ll let you know. Thank you, thank you, thank you regardless for hours of entertainment and fun!
You tempt me with trying the PDF sales thing myself once I finish editing my first story. Still, was hoping to catch the eye of a real publisher.
Feel free to grab them and use them however you’d like, if you’re into that sort of thing. Small request: please don’t hotlink them; bandwidth is expensive.
Quick clarification/question Wil:
It took me twice through this sentence to parse it correctly. There’s both linkage and non-linkage. What I think you mean is:
– We are welcome to take either of those images, put them on our web pages, and make them links to your sale page for the book (that’s the linkage).
– However…if we do so, we should make a copy of the image and put in in our web site source disk, so that it’s coming from us, rather than remotely embedding via your page, so you don’t get slammed with requests for it (the non-linkage).
Right?
Craig
It was a great book… my copy arrive yesterday in the mail, and I read it while I was preparing dinner. I laughed out loud at the write-up on the TNG episode “Datalore”. Oddly enough, when I finished the book, I turned on the TV and as I was paging through the list of show, SCI Fi was showing TNG, and wouldn’t you know it, the episode was “Datalore”!
Eager to read more…
AH YES!! thanks, Craig, i was a bit confused. 😀
Unless a “real publisher” is going to give you a huge advance (which, speaking from experience, is all you’re going to ever see) guarantee you great placement in tons of stores (which is unlikely because bookstores make them pay for placement) and a marketing campaign that gets a ton of attention and keeps it (which is something I’m *still* waiting for) and you’re willing to take all of $1.50 for each book *after* it earns out the advance, then you’re way better off doing it on your own.
Wil’s Fundamental Rule of Publishing: nobody is going to work as hard as you to promote your book, and your book is only going to sell as well as it’s promoted. Why give away your rights and your earnings?
NB: This is not to say that you shouldn’t get a professional editor – who works in the genre you’re publishing – to look at your book and unleash the Red Pen of Doom. That’s worth its weight in gold and anyone who is serious needs to do that.
If you have questions about self-publishing, fire away; I’ll do my best to answer them for you.
You are correct, Craig.
Take them, do whatever you like with them, but please host them someplace other than my site.
I love how you always make the extra effort to give credit to whomever credit may be due in any and all of your projects. Yay you! (And I have my copy of ST right here on my desk. I hope to read it tonight!)
Personally, I prefer print copies. I love the idea of the kindle, but… books are so awesome! So if I only have access to/money for a digital version of something first, it’s likely I would later buy the print version as well.
Will you be at ECCC again this year?
I have to agree with that assessment. I may take you up on the question & answer session later on. However, I don’t need to occupy your time with my efforts. I’m just busy with my writing; you have a life to maintain.
Hi Wil I am a massive fan of your work. Both writing and acting. I ordered a copy of your new book the other day and I am so excited to read it. This may be off subject but, who does all your little cartoons.
I think the one you have on here is pretty cool and the ones in your books but every time I’m on twitter by boyfriend comments on that cartoon of you. Who does them for you?
Nicola Lawrie. mooisaidmoo on twitter xxx
Hi Wil I am a big fan of your work. Both writing and acting. I ordered a copy of your new book the other day and I am so excited to read it. This may be off subject but, who does all your little cartoons.
I think the one you have on here is pretty cool and the ones in your books but every time I’m on twitter by boyfriend comments on that cartoon of you. Who does them for you?
nicola. mooisaidmoo on twitter xx
HAHAHA I was laughing out loud (very loudly) while I read his stuff about Datalore too!! The FAQ got me too. I love Wil’s FAQs!!!
I am totally ECCC bound. I’ll see you and the crew there, yes?
My friend Rich Stevens, who does http://www.dieselsweeties.com did the picture on my blog, and my friend Jeph Jacques, who does http://www.questionablecontent.com did my Twitter avatar.
Aren’t they great?!
Yes they really are cool. My boyfriend always asks about the one on twitter. The other day he was looking at my copy of just a geek and was commenting on those drawings. He is still going on about how he wishes he had pictures like that of himself. It’s so funny to me because he is never enthusiastic about anything I like.
Success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Cory may have given you the idea, but you are doing the work and it is cutting edge work. You deserve a lot of credit for exploring that part of the business plan space.
Most definetely! Let me know if you’ll be in town any extra days surrounding. I think you need some more bee lasagna.
The drawings from Just A Geek were done by John Kovalic, who is best known for http://www.dorktower.com and all his awesome games at Out of the Box. The illustrations in Dancing Barefoot were done by Ben Claassen, who is at http://www.bendependent.com.
I was impressed both by how professionally packaged the book turned out being when I received it, as well as how speedy the entire process was from the point where you first put it up for purchase on your blog, to the moment I bought it, and Lulu got on the ball, banged out a copy and shipped it off. Wrapped in a glorious green, glossy cover and squarebound spine even. Mmm-mmm. A damn fine slice of cherry pie, ma’am. Would’ve loved to have had a little more original Wheaton-wrought material in the collection but, hey, if my money goes to support more original material in the future, it was worth it.
The immediacy and accessibility of this whole print-on-demand process is what works the most thrillingly for me. I have to say, sitting down at the laundromat on the drab February evening following the one on which I received my copy of Sunken Treasure, it was quite a peculiar experience seeing the very same month used as the date with which Wil signed off his “Author’s Note”. Being used to the idea that the author of the book I hold in my hands usually has written the foreword or introduction to his or her book months, sometimes even years, in advance of the current date upon which I choose to read it, I couldn’t help but smile and think to myself how the future is sneaking up rapidly upon us.
If only the SubPress limited edition of Happiest Days Of Our Lives could find its way into my greedy, waiting clutches as swiftly. I’ve refrained from reading or listening to any audio passages from HDOOL until I receive my copy of the collector’s edition. Please, please, give me a sign that it is nearing completion! Since HDOOL is the only collection of your original work remaining that I haven’t read, I’ve been drawing things out, waiting patiently for the SubPress release to savor the moment. I don’t know how much longer I can hold off listening to the audio excerpts that have been posted.
Nonetheless, excellent work by all involved in the Crazy Idea That Turned Out To Be Madly Successful And Rather Awesome one. Here’s hoping we see more like it. It’s exciting to feel a part of a fan community that can come together and bring something like this to fruitful reality. What wonders await us?! The Future, ain’t it cool :).
Ha! At the moment I got to the synopsis of “Datalore” the episode came on my TV! I was freaking out and literally ROFL’d. Talk about a crazy coincidence.
Hey! Great! I just used the big art for my review of Sunken Treasure, which I at last posted:
http://indigestible.nightwares.com/2009/02/25/treasure-hunting/
I genuinely enjoyed the read, and I’m looking forward to sucking up the rest of your books. Well done.
Wil? How about an L.A. book signing tour???
Please???
🙂
Oh, by the way, it’s interesting how your name is set in a hotter red in both the small and large banners than the rest of the text. It’s subtle but effective, and I don’t see that the actual physical book cover has a different value there. It’s a nice underline.
It certainly seems like you were in a better position than most of us just starting out, at least someone knew who you were.
Is the publishing industry really that harsh?
You have me a little scared now, because the first piece of writing advice I was given was if a publisher won’t look at my writing that’s because it isn’t worth publishing. So that is where I have been headed.
You obviously have material worth publishing, and a very loyal fan base. You think you could do a blog on the cold hard facts of publishing someday, when you get time… it would be much appreciated.
I can echo what Wil wrote. My micropress requires aggressive self-promotion on the part of the authors. More candidly, I’m not sure “real” publishers are the model to follow any more in any case.
Osborne/McGraw-Hill published a tech book I wrote back in the early double-oughts, and while it was well-received in its limited demographic, even then I was expected to take up a lot of the weight in re marketing it. Well dammit, Jim, I’m a writer, not a PR man. (And thus, irony, as later events proved.)
If you’ve got a story that roxxors boxxors, it might be a mistake to try to pimp it the oldschool way via agents, or sending things over the transom to land in a slush pile. It might be more worthwhile to consider setting yourself up with a blog account, or installing a blog script to your site (if you have the site, and the desire/skill to install the engine yourself), and just post excerpts or entire short pieces there.
One of my personal delights here, specifically now, is seeing how well Sunken Treasure is doing, how well it’s being received, and especially reading about Wil’s sale spike when the PDF went live. In truth this didn’t surprise me; it’s just a documented example of what I’ve suspected to be the case for the last several years.
To wit: Giving your content away for free or nearly so doesn’t reduce hardcopy sales. It can increase it enormously. Parallel discoveries were made in music (pirated concert tapes, cf. early-80’s Metallica), then discarded (Metallica and DRM, or, “Metallica: A history of Heavy Metal Irony”).
The other thing Wil mentioned is editing. You can’t trade a good editor for his or her weight in gold. Both Stephen King and JK Rowling have two things in common: (1) Their books are hugely successful; and (2) they work best when working with a strong editor who knows how to say “redact” in a meaningful way. (Actually, you can say the same of Lucas: Witness SW eps I – III vs. IV – VI.)
It’s worth giving Lulu a shot, if you’ve got the DTP software to create a more or less finished document, and the skill/desire to create a prepress-ready piece. If your work is shorter than book length, consider putting it online and generating a fanbase, and whatever, whatever you do, keep writing.
You’d think that LA stuff would be really easy, since I live here and everything, but in all the years that I’ve done things in town, whether it was an ACME show, or a book signing or a comic shop appearance, or whatever, no more than 8 or 10 people ever showed up. It was great that anyone at all bothered to come out, and I always liked the intimate setting that resulted, but if I can only draw 8 to 10 people in a local venue, store and theater owners aren’t going to be interested in booking me for anything.
Well, publisher’s *won’t* publish if it isn’t worth publishing, but if you go indie and hire an honest and competent editor, you should be able to learn from them if your work has a chance of succeeding in the genre or not.
I have some genre fiction that I’m working on, and when it’s done, I intend to publish it myself. However, I’m running it past editors who work in the genre before I even get to the final draft, so I know if it’s crap or not.
What sold me on ST was the personal angle. I’d been reading your blog for a bit, following your tweets, and when you put it on Lulu I was already primed. There was a personal connection there, something that couldn’t have been manufactured by Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
That’s significant, I think. I bought ST not because of any advance reviews, or the possibility of reading the Next Great American Whatever, but because I wanted to see what was in it, because I like your blog, your writing and your onscreen work.
There’s something here, something far deeper than any PR work could make, the idea of an intimate personal connection on some level. This is interesting, and it’s making me think about how I’ll be doing things at work tomorrow.
Not so much about how to manufacture or create a “personal” connection — rather, how to authentically let it germinate and grow.
Wil,
I already Twittered this to you but I know you are a busy man so I’m bringing the mountain to Mohammed here and letting you know in 2 places.
My artist and I liked the idea of you being in our comic so much we couldn’t decide which script was better. I wanted you keeping airplanes safe and solving the Middle East Peace Crisis, my artist wanted you doing… something else.
So we did both. The first one is up now;
http://www.remedialcomics.com/
Along with a bunch of fanboy gushiness about you in the blog. Hope you like it.
The second one will be up next week. I’ll let you know, and if you have a moment to Twitter me (or you can just comment on the comic itself on our site) I’d love to know what you think.
If you need anything my e-mail is [email protected]
Thanks for being such a great sport.
I know you’re commenting on Cory Doctorow as the starter of DRM-free e-books, but there’s a pro publisher doing it too – been doing it for a few years as well: Baen Books.
It’s been so successful that they’ve spun off the e-publishing bit to a separate business at http://www.webscriptions.net/ and, as far as I can tell, they do all the nasty work with ebook formats so your book looks nice on every device going, and they are happy to deal with small indie publishers, too – they have several up there.
Try clicking on my screen name. It might take you to other worlds.
Just got my copy in the mail yesterday. Unfortunately I didn’t get home until 11:30 last night, so I have’t had the time to read it. I’ll give a review once I’m done. I was just wondering if you’re planning to do any kind of reading or book tour on the east coast? I’m sure you’d draw a larger crowd because we never see you out here. Also, Shore Leave (in Baltimore) would be a great convention for you because they a lot with writers and hold workshops and stuff.
~~TARA~~
I see what you did there with “Bogusky.” Nicely done.
Thanks for the hat tip, dude. 😉 I have to give props to Matt, who did the original art in the first place, and hasn’t yet complained or started sharpening his X-Acto after I got done with it. It was a blast, and I look forward to working with you on something sekrit Sooner Than I Think.
Yep, that’s pretty damn awesome of Wil.
I just purchased the PDF. It works great in my Stanza ebook reader on my iPhone. I wish more of your books were available in portable formats.
Brilliant idea about the PDF. I wonder if I’ll be able to read it on my Palm… I used to be so cutting edge, just a few years ago. Now I’m finding I’m behind on everything.
I just signed up for twitter, I’m probably the last person on earth to start a blog (http://logic-shop.blogspot.com – 3 whole posts so far).
Maybe if I try hard enough, I can be Wil Wheaton when I grow up. ;p Thanks for being the one thing that’s as cool as I remember it being.
If there are time stamps in your sales data, I bet we could set up some staggered time series columns and use Xcelsius to create some sort of race like visualization of the data. It wouldn’t have the race horse, though.
You’re totally right about Jim Baen, and I had a good conversation with him at a con in Austin about e-publishing several years ago.
I personally credit Cory because Cory is a friend, and we’ve spoken about new models of publishing (including e-publishing and using the CC license) and how we as technology enthusiasts who are also creators can benefit from it.
I’m not taking anything away from Jim, but I’m closer to Cory, so he’s had a stronger influence on me in this specific instance.
Hi, Wil.
I loved Sunken Treasure.
I ordered it the day it was available and whipped through it in a few hours. As a way of paying it forward, I blogged about your book on my blog at http://albertoslopez.typepad.com/digital_impulses/2009/02/wil-wheatons-sunken-treasure.html, using the small banner image you gave us.
Anyway, keep up the awesome writing. I look forward to whatever comes next from your creative karma.
Cheers,
Alberto S. Lopez
Lawndale, CA
I had been hesitant to purchase one of your books. (for reasons I won’t get into here) When I saw the PDF of ST for five bucks I snagged it and read it yesterday afternoon.
I loved the book (I reviewed it for my book and music blog) and I will be ordering hard copies of your other stuff next week.
Thanks so much for doing this.
I’m not opposed to coming to the east coast for a tour or something. I had a great time when I performed in Boston a few years ago, and if I could somehow duplicate that experience in other cities, I’d be all over it.
I also snagged the PDF after reading both blog and Twitter updates for a while. I’m psyched to have more of Wil’s thoughts to read, in a convenient format.
Haven’t had time to read it yet, but I know it’ll be worth the $6.42 CDN. (That’s right, I’m a crazy Canuck!) I’m cutting back on my book purchases this year, so e-books are a great way to do that, even without an iPhone, Kindle or other e-book reader…
Hi, Wil. Thanks so much for the response. Remember the Borders book signing you did in Hollywood? There were actually a lot of people for that but the difference was that it was advertised. You have a loyal following in WWdN but not everyone is on here all the time and many L.A. people could miss an event if you had one…..unless they were on everyday. I for one check the Book section of LATimes.com every week. That’s the only way I know who is appearing in L.A. I’m sure over the months I have missed some amazing events but it comes down to getting the word out. If they don’t advertise, people won’t come.
Scott
P.S. My friend and co-worker is really good friends with the owner of Metropolis Books in Downtown L.A. When I meet them for breakfast in a couple of weeks, we’ll stop by Metroplis like usual. Let me run it by the owner. I want this so much that I would help advertise the event for her.
Wil, it’s great that I can count on you to give out really, reeeeeally, obscure Monty Python-references. Thankyou!
sssssssssschtunk! “Message for you sir!”
😀
So I finished the remainder of Sunken Treasure. I forced myself not to go straight through, to savor the tiny nature of it. After turning the final page, I was immediately compelled to check the tubes for season 4 ep. 4 of CM. Wil. You made me sad. It was great work, and I found myself, of course, thinking- ok, i need to check and see if they were able to capture his objective while being chased through the woods.. Maybe not so much- you were really bookin it. Niice bad work. Also- repeatreplytweet- congrats on Naruto. Namaste! (@metastaticpax)