Category: Books

Before I get to the "Hey, I released Memories as a PDF because you asked for it" portion of this post, I wanted to share some early feedback on Memories of the Future Volume One:

"@wilw's MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE is my TNG DVD commentary of choice. Fun and funny and a blast to read all around. nice work, man." – Matt Fraction

"If you remember ST:TNG with equal amounts of nostalgia and facepalm, you need @wilw's new book, MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE." – Antony Johnston.

"Wil is a funny writer, and funny writers can make anything entertaining, including reviews of Star Trek episodes, especially when he was acting in them as a kid and forced to wear the worst clothes anyone outside of a max-security prisoner or someone from the 1970s forced to wear. I therefore commend your attention to this book as a Funny and also Interesting book that is otherwise about a tv series I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch. Put another way: I wouldn’t keep the tv episodes in the house, but I would keep the book. Yes? Yes." – Warren Ellis. (Who, incidentally, is responsible for the title of the book. Thanks, Uncle Warren.)

Excuse me while I squee, just a little bit…

…and now we're on to business:

In case you missed it on Twitter yesterday, I have made Memories of the Future Volume One available for DRM-free PDF download. It's just $10, and it's available from Lulu.

I had planned to wait a week, so the digital release could coincide with Monday's podcast, but so many people were asking for it – especially people who can afford $10 but not $19.87 and people who are in far off lands where packages are still delivered by steam-powered autogyro – I went ahead and released it last night.

When I did the PDF version of Sunken Treasure, I wrote a FAQ for it. The FAQs are pretty much the same, so…

Q: Can I read it on my iPhone?
A: Yeah, it's a regular old PDF file, so it will totally work on your iPhone's PDF reader.

Q:How will it look on my iPhone, though?
A: I don't own an iPhone, so I can't say from firsthand experience, but I've heard from a lot of people who have read it on their iPhones, and they were happy with the experience. Trying to read it in Stanza is wonky, though.

Q: What about other formats?
A: I'm looking into it. I know lots of people want it for [DEVICE THEY OWN] and when I have the time, I'll figure out a way to make those formats available. At the moment, though, it's not my top priority.

Q: Why not just sell it through Amazon for the Kindle?
A: I may eventually do that, but right now I don't know if I can sell enough copies to make up for the massive cut of revenue I'd have to give Amazon. I'm happy as hell to be selling in the hundreds, but if I went that way, I'd have to either increase the price significantly, or hope to sell in the thousands. I'm not sure that there are thousands of people who a) want to read this and b) also own Kindles.

Q: If I buy this, can I convert it to a different format?
A: Sure. You can use calibre to convert it to a ton of different formats. Calibre is free (speech and beer) by the way. Incidentally, if you're one of the Kindle owners, you can use calibre to convert the PDF to a Kindle format. People who bought Sunken Treasure on PDF used Calibre to convert it to Kindle format, and the images I saw from them looked fantastic.

Q: I already bought the print version. Can I get a copy of the digital version?
A: Sure you can. It's just ten bucks.

Q: I see what you did there.
A: That's not a question, but thanks.

Q: Can I give this to my friend/husband/wife/mom/girl or boy I'm trying to impress?
A: Once you have it, I can't stop you from doing whatever you want with it, and I certainly wouldn't expect you to treat it any differently than you would a paper book. However, I hope that we all understand the difference between sharing with our friends/spouses/famies and "sharing" with an entire forum, or hundreds of people simultaneously. I'm not trying to be a dick about this, and I'd rather people read it than not, but it's only $10, you know? 

Q: If I buy this, can I make my own print copy?
A: As long as you don't sell it, absolutely. However, the economics of it may work out to make it cheaper for you to just buy the print copy. Having said that, if a print shop doesn't want to print it for you, show them this: I give you permission to make one printed copy of Memories of the Future, Volume One, for personal, non-commercial use.

Q: If I make my own print copy and bring it to a con, will you sign it for me?
A: Hells yes I will. That'd be pretty cool, actually.

Given recent events, some of you reading this may be surprised to hear that I remain committed to releasing my books in non-DRM digital formats. For those who have chosen to make me some kind of proxy target for our totally justifiable outrage at the insanity of the RIAA and MPAA over the last decade, I guess that would be a surprise. But consider this, which I wrote when I released Sunken Treasure in a digital format:

[After I released the PDF,] I admit that I had a brief flash of doubt. "Did I just screw myself? Did I just sell one and end up giving away a hundred?"

"No," I reminded myself. "People who will steal from me were never going to support my work, anyway. You're doing the right thing. You're making it available to people at a really fair price, in a super portable format. And maybe people will like it and want a paper copy for themselves or to give as gifts."

I hoped that PDF sales would be solid … well, they were solid, for about ten minutes, and then they exploded. In less than an hour, the total PDFs sold exceed 1/5 of the total print copies sold. People were e-mailing positive feedback, people were Twittering positive feedback, and people were starting to talk about it on their blogs.

"Okay, this is awesome," I thought. "I definitely did the right thing."

I realize that the same people who claim I've lost all credibility due to my unhappiness at recent events may have a hard time reconciling this with my disappointment at seeing unauthorized copies of my work being distributed by douchebags who want to profit from it. I'm not going to spend a lot of time trying to change their minds, which appear to be made up, and stuck in an infinite loop arguing the semantics of the word "steal."

To everyone else, though, I hope you'll enjoy the book in whatever format you choose, and once you've had a chance to read it, you'll let me know – honestly – what you think. Thank you, so very, very much for your support! I am doing everything I can to continue earning it.

I am beyond excited to announce the release of my newest book, Memories of the Future, Volume One.

I worked harder on this book than anything since Just a Geek, and it wouldn't have been possible without a bunch of people, who I thank in the book, but wanted to thank here, as well:

Andrew Hackard, Brent Spiner, David Gerrold, Jamais Cascio, John Rogers, Keith McDuffee, Memory Alpha, Phil Plait, Will Hindmarch, .tws, everyone who read and commented on my original posts at TV Squad, and especially to my wife and kids, who watched more TNG than they ever thought possible while I was working on this.

If you've just heard about Memories of the Future for the first time, and are wondering what it is, I'd like to share the introduction with you, which I think explains the whole thing rather well:

Introduction to Memories of the Future

In August 2006, Brad Hill, an editor at Weblogs, Inc., hired me to write humorous reviews of Star Trek: The Next Generation from my unique point of view as an actor and a fan of the show.

I started at the beginning of the first season, re-watching episodes that I hadn’t seen in a decade or longer, faithfully recording and sharing the memories they released. Along the way, I came up with some silly episode recaps, and an interesting perspective on the first season, twenty years after we brought it to life. The columns were very well-received, and tons of readers asked me if they’d be collected into a book. I didn’t plan on it originally, but AOL cut TV Squad’s budget before I’d even made it to the halfway point of the first year, and I decided that putting the entire season into a book wasn’t just a good way to finish the season, it was a moral imperative.

A few months after I began working on this book in earnest, at the 2009 Nebula awards dinner, I sat at a table with David Gerrold, who is best-known for writing the original series classic The Trouble With Tribbles. (Fun fact: David wrote and sold The Trouble with Tribbles when he was 19. My wife Anne asked him how he had the courage to do that, and David told her, "Because nobody told me I couldn't." That's so awesome, and everyone who is creative should commit that to memory.)

We were talking about all kinds of writerly stuff, and I mentioned to David that I was working on this book. As I started to describe it to him, I could see that he wasn't into it, but was too polite to tell me why.

After a minute, he said, "You have to be careful with your tell-all book…"

"Ah, that's why he wasn't into it." I thought.

"It's not a tell-all book. I hate those things," I said. "It's more like you're flipping through your high school yearbook with your friends."

I called on all my improv skills and held an imaginary book in my hands.

"It's like, 'Hey! I remember this, and I remember that, and did you know that this funny thing happened there, and … oh God … I can't believe I thought that was cool…'"

His face lit up. "That sounds like a book I'd like to read."

Here it is, David. I hope you enjoy it. (Additional fun fact: David Gerrold suggested me for the role of Wesley. If he hadn't done that, I don't know that I'd have ever voluntarily worn a pumpkin-colored sweater.

Despite that, though, I'm extremely grateful to David for convincing Bob Justman and Gene Roddenberry to take a chance on me.)

Volume One takes you from the pilot to Datalore. Volume Two will take you from Angel One to The Neutral Zone. During our journey together, we’ll certainly be going where no one has gone before, except those times when we go 20% to the left of where the original series went and talk about stuff a whole bunch without actually doing anything … but that’s part of what makes the first season so much fun to watch, especially knowing how greatThe Next Generation eventually became.

Put on your shoulder pads, set a course for 1987, emit an inverse-tacyon pulse into the heart of the anomaly, and engage! By Riker’s beard, you shall be avenged! (Um, as soon as Riker’s beard shows up, next season.)

Namaste,

Wil Wheaton
Pasadena
June 2009

Man, I can't believe I wrote that all the way back in June. This really has taken a long time to get across the finish line, hasn't it?

For the last six weeks, I've been doing podcast previews from the book. I think they're pretty amusing, and they're also a pretty good way to figure out if this book is something you'll enjoy:

• Memories of the Futurecast Episode 1 Encounter at Farpoint, Part One
• Memories of the Futurecast Episode 2 Encounter at Farpoint, Part Two
• Memories of the Futurecast Episode 3 The Naked Now
• Memories of the Futurecast Episode 4 Code of Honor
• Memories of the Futurecast Episode 5 The Last Outpost
• Memories of the Futurecast Episode 6 Where No One Has Gone Before

I've also put up an extensive preview on the book's product page at Lulu, so you can take a look inside the book and read the chapters that cover Encounter at Farpoint Part 1 and Justice. If you have this thing called The Internet, you can also read the chapters in their original, unedited form at TV Squad.

There are bound to be some FAQS about this book, so let me attempt to answer a few of them now:

Q: Will there be an audiobook?

A: Maybe. I'm hopeful that this book sells well enough to justify the amount of time and energy that goes into creating an audio version.

Q: Will there be a digital version, a version for my Kindle, or [my electronic reading device]?

A: Probably.

Q: When?

A: Soon. 

Q: Why not now?

A: Because I haven't decided how I want to release a digital version (how to make different formats available or just do the PDF that is easy at Lulu) and what a fair price for it will be.

New Answer: Yes. The PDF is $10 at Lulu, on the same page where you can order the print version. Enjoy!

Q: Can I buy a signed copy?

A: Well, you can buy a copy and bring it to a con or something, and I'll be happy to sign it for you there, but since this is printed on-demand, when you order it, there's no way for me to sign it before it makes its way into your hands, tentacles, clamps, or whatever you use to hold a book.

Q: Will there be a 300 like you did for The Happiest Days of Our Lives?

A: I hope I can do that; it's just a matter of making the economics work.

Q: Will this be in regular bookstores?

A: Probably not. I'm an indie publisher with razor-thin margins, and since the vast majority of my customers are online, it just doesn't make sense to end up with a few cents on the dollar per sale, which is what would happen if I were to get this distributed into bookstores. I've blogged extensively about how and why I publish the way that I do. If I can find the links to those posts, I'll add them here.

Q: What about Amazon? Can I get it at Amazon?

A: Sometimes Lulu sells books through Amazon. If this is one of the titles they choose, then you'll be able to get it there. If you can, I'll update this post. I think it ends up costing the same whether you get it from Amazon or Lulu, though.

Q: Why is shipping so expensive?

A: That's a Lulu question, not a me question.

Q: So why did you put it here?

A: Because it's frequently asked.

Q: I'm not in the US. Do I need to wait for a World edition?

A: No. One of the many cool things about using print on demand from Lulu is that the book will be printed in whatever country you place your order, which keeps jobs closer to home, limits delivery and shipping fees and time, and makes everyone happy. Yay!

Q: You didn't answer my question.

A: That's not a question, it's a statement. But go ahead and ask it in comments, and I'll do my best to answer it there.

So there you go. As always, thank you for your support. I hope you enjoy my Memories of the Future.