Hey, remember when I posted stuff in my blog every day and we all had a good time while learning? It's a distant memory, but if you squint, you may be able to pick it up.
Anyway. It's summer, I've been working on awesome projects that I can't talk about, finishing up awesome projects that I've talked about a lot already (Memories of the Future, special edition of Happiest Days, etc.), and since Ryan came home from school and I have my whole family together under one roof again, I'm not especially motivated to stay at my computer after I'm done working, you know?
To close some tabs, though, please enjoy these things that are all related:
Indie Kindle Author lands book deal
He will be published in hardcover in 2010 and is working on his next book featuring swashbuckling adventurer Tyler Locke.
Kick ass, Boyd Morrison! I hope your experience in traditional publishing is better than mine was, and I hope you'll keep your fellow authors informed about your experience.
Author Michael Stackpole: "I don't worry about pirates."
selling fiction directly off his site; he doesn't worry about pirates,
"People downloading my stories from the big torrent sites were never
going to buy them anyway. It's no money out of my pocket."
I have a similar philosophy, and I consider myself tremendously lucky to have the kind of relationship with my customers that I do.
Sunken Treasure has gotten some incredible reviews at Lulu:
good place to sample his writing. My favorite chapters were those about
his childhood – the bad Star Wars trade, the arcade games, auditions.
There's something about the way he captures the true sense of those
times and weaves in pop cultural references so naturally. In those
chapters, I forgot I was reading and was totally drawn into the
storytelling. It felt like being there. I also liked the chapter which
was an on-set diary about a recent acting job – a very open and
engaging account of how it happens and what it's like.
Wil's writing is very honest, clever, vulnerable, raw, and
unprocessed. He's not afraid to show his doubts or fears, and he's not
embarrassed to share his highs. It makes him very real and very
likeable. After reading this sampler, I wanted to know more about him.
Finally, I simply appreciate the fact that this is an independently
published work. I think a lot of people shy away from self-published
books because they're concerned about unchecked quality. The writing
here is terrific and there is a feel of integrity and control in
presenting it.
So…yeah, that's pretty awesome. I love it that so many readers enjoy
Sunken Treasure, and the biggest complaint is that it leaves people
wanting to read more (kind of the idea, but don't tell anyone I said
that, okay?)
This morning, Twitter user @KenMcConnell said: "Wil (@wilw) Wheaton's Sunken Treasure used on Scribd page for ad copy. Cool for him! " I grabbed a screenshot, because it's one of those things I kind of want to remember when I'm in the adult diapers stage of my life. If I haven't kicked the everlivingshit out of this dead horse, allow me to take a few more whacks (slow, then fast): publishing with Lulu has been a fantastic experience for me. It's easy, the quality of the final product is fantastic, and it frees me up to do the creative stuff I couldn't do when I was fulfilling orders in my living room with the occasional help from my friends and family. If you're considering publishing, I suggest you give Lulu serious consideration.
When I was in Portland, working on Leverage, I spent all of my non-acting time writing stories. When I wasn't writing, I hung out with John Rogers and talked about writing stories. I'm not sure if I grew a level, but definitely gained a whole lot of XP: I wrote a short story that I love (to be released in the near future after I give it a second draft and Andrew applies the Red Pen of Doom) and began work on another that shows at least some promise.
Ryan just wandered out of his room and sat down next to me on the couch with his laptop.
"Dude, you have to see this!" He said, pointing to something on the screen.
"Who is this is?" I said, glancing up from my own laptop.
"Check it out!" He clicked the mouse and flipped the screen toward me. This is what he showed me.
"Dude…" I shook my head.
He giggled. "I totally got you."
"You totally did."
It's really great to have him home.
You are so inspiring. I think it would be great if you could talk at writer’s conferences about the non-traditional way of publishing. I think so many writer’s are blocked out because of the hassle of finding and agent and publishing house. You’ve proved you don’t need any of that stuff. You rock!
DUDE! And of course out of all the links I chose to click first, it had to be the last one.
*contented sigh* Isn’t great when you can geek with your kids? Funny thing, I just tweeted “Its one thing to geek with your friends, its a whole new level of awesome to be able to geek with your kids!”
I’ve been thinking about doing some kind of virtual conference online, where I could take questions about my experiences as an indie writer and publisher and do my best to share my experiences with whoever wanted to listen.
Oy.. I just got Rick Roll’ed by Wil Wheaton… Definitely a proud moment. Can’t wait to tell my wife. 🙂
Dude. You did not just do that. 🙂 Well done. By the way, congrats on the recent acting gigs — sounds like you’ve had a great time. And keep on writing. You’ve got a great voice, and we’re enjoying it. I’d love to find out what you think about a new article I wrote (you’ll understand the relevance from the title), but either way, keep on doing what you do, mate.
Jeff
HA! That is great! I know quite a few people that would very much enjoy that article and now I must go and tweet it myself.
Wil, that last link totally made me loose the game. *shakes fist*
Can’t wait to hear more about the secret projects. Glad life is going awesome for you, the writing is going well, and all your family is in one spot for you to enjoy at the moment. Thanks for sharing the joy!
Cheers!
Good information to get out to the masses! Query letters are so daunting! Always looking for different approaches 🙂
for webcomic lovers http://www.lfgcomic.com/page/144
Best wishes
Believe it or not, @wilw was my inspiration for getting onto Twitter last year. Funny that it all comes full circle, huh? Rock on @wilw!
Hah, I successfully avoided clicking that link… wait… dammit. Curse you, Wheaton! I’ll get you one of these days. There will be revenge, oh yes, there will be revenge.
me too! And then I got addicted *sigh* Actually addiction doesn’t even begin to describe my love of Twitter
Thanks for the mention Wil! I’m just about ready to launch my own book on LuLu, Null_Pointer, and I saw they were doing ebooks now and that was how I found the link.
BTW, I put a bit of geeky trivia in my book in homage to you. I hope you don’t mind. 😉
“Joshua eyed the knife again, moving closer to it, trying to
think of a way to use it to defend him. If he were a hero in a movie, he would just pick it up and throw it into Taggert and kill him. But he was not an action hero; he was just a geek. It was not in his nature or his realm of experience to attack and kill anyone.”
Ok, I don’t really consider it a rickroll if I know it’s a rickroll before I click on the rickroll link. Am I right? Besides, if I’m gonna be rickroll’d by anyone, I would rather it be by hWil hWeaton.
Oh, yeah, and congrats, good job, blah-de-blah on the writin’ stuff.
😀
Wil, I’d totally be into tuning in for that type of a discussion. I’m about ready to take my first stab at publishing through Lulu.
Any news on the new D&D podcast? I saw word that a new one was recorded in my twitter feed, but nothing from you on the subject. Were you a participant this time? If so any idea when it will be released?
Thank you, Wil!!
HAHA you didn’t get to Rick Roll me since youtube tweeks out half the time at work. The video couldn’t load 😉
Rickrolled and I lost the game. *shakes fist*
Oy…Rick Roll’d by Wil Wheaton and then I lost the game while reading the comments!
I love geekdom!
Wil, thanks, as always, for sharing 🙂
Oh damn it. RickRoll’d by Wil Wheaton, and I missed the first 5 minutes of Ocean’s Thirteen & dropped my cell phone while talking to my little sister because I was laughing so hard. At least I didn’t drop my sandwich. 😀
Wil, I think that you are proving quite well that you don’t need a traditional method of publishing. This is inspirational to up-and coming writers who find the task of having their work published daunting. It might even get people who did not want to publish their work because of the difficult process, to go ahead and publish. And crap, I can’t believe I fell for that RicRoll.
Not as large a roll than the Christmas parade a few years ago, but a good one Wil. Never get tired of hearing it though, so keep on rolling along. Great get Wil!
I’m still giggling about the deliciously geeky phrase: “To close some tabs…”
And I would love to attend a virtual conference/class about self-publishing.
I’d listen. I’m very interested in this entire line of thinking. I recently received my first rejection letter from a publisher (it was my first time to submit). I’m considering it a win simply because I got up the courage to submit to begin with (NOT easy) and because I got a hand-written request for another submission, but I’m still looking hard at self-publishing, too.
I write short stories. The magazines are great, but I’m looking at other media, as well.
Anyway…I’d listen. Keep us posted, huh?
So, along the lines I mentioned earlier, what if one is not already a “name,” like you or Stackpole? How to get peeps to find me if I do the ebook route or self-publish?
Hm…must think on this…yet still manage to keep my actual job, since writing is my hobby (though I’d like it to be my job). Hm…thanks for the brain fodder, Wil.
LOL. the only time I’ve been rickrolled is the muppets do a rickroll and nothing compares. Not even the Macy’s Float – which I sought out on You Tube to see what else was out there. Now that’s geeky.
Hi,
This is not a comment – just a thank you! I am listening to “Just A Geek” the audio version and really enjoying it! I live in a remote place in Greenland north of the arctic circle, where we can’t buy books. I actually think theres only like 3 or 4 bookstores in the entire country. I haven’t read a book in a very long time. I hate audio-books, those people that read them don’t even sound like real people :-/ I was curious about you writing….so even though I hate those things, I bought yours and I must say…best thing i’ve done in a long time! So thank you! I hope all your books become available on audio.
Yeah Rickroll’d here too! *sigh* To be or not be a borg? How the “Zen”nies keep rollin’ tonight and early morning. Started around 7 pm yesterday evening and doesn’t seem to be letting up. Thank you Wil. Your writer’s voice is also a reason why I joined Twitter. I want to be able to follow someone I admire and not just from a newspaper or magazine or blog. Thank you for being you. Please keep writing and publishing *somewhere.*
Pwned. Totally fucking pwned. Goddammit, I even KNEW it was a Rickroll before I clicked it, and I STILL clicked it. HWEATON! HWEATOOOOOOOOOOOOOON! So, how does it feel to Rickroll half the fucking internet, you bastard? 😀
Wil, I have (ashamedly) been away from your blog for months (I don’t know why–too much of a good thing? Who knows?!). I noticed when I did return that you were not doing daily dialogue with your worshipers (oops, I meant fans). I see now that you’ve explained why very well. Family DOES come first, and by all accounts, you have one fine family. I’ll just check back in OFTEN and wait for your pearls of humordom. Thanks for MAKING it real! Amen
I for one would definitely be interested in listening. I’ve been writing for a while and have a lot of unfinished books and stories that I never had the chance complete and get published. I’ve finally decided to pick up one of my unfinished books, complete it try to get it published. However, I would like do as much of it on my own as possible(or at least find a good company to help me with my first published book). Any advice or wisdom you could share would be greatly appreciated! (and I’m sure there are many others that would value that advice as well!)