Hugh Howey's Blog, page 100
March 23, 2012
Exciting things for April!
Okay, if your name is April, calm down. I didn't mean you. I mean next month!
Sometime around the 11th of April, I'm going to release the Wool series back onto the Nook and iPad. If sales are better this time around, I will leave them there and publish the rest of my books on those platforms going forward. If they are as anemic as they were last time, it won't make up for the "borrows" I get from being Amazon exclusive, and I'll have to take them down.
So, if you have friends and family who haven't caught Wool Fever because of incompatible immune systems, let them know what's coming and to support indie authors on those platforms. Otherwise, the party will be a fleeting one.
If you want to help keep hope alive, a quick and easy way will be to copy and paste your Amazon reviews onto the B&N and iBook stores. I know, I ask a lot of you readers. If it makes you feel better, think of me getting up every morning to write, edit, and revise so that you only have to wait a few months between releases rather than a year or more!
Updates!
Check out that word count! Over 42,000 words in Wool 6 – Legacy (the title keeps changing). All the chapters are in place, it just needs some heavy revisions. Another week or so and I'll get it in the hands of editors and beta readers and we'll see if it's publishable or if I need to scrap it and start all over again.
I'm thinking mid-April, barring any disasters or reports of beta readers throwing up in their mouths. It could also get pushed back to the end of April or middle of May. I'll try to lock down a date as the feedback rolls in.
I Skyped with my second book club yesterday. It was a freakin' blast! I think the kids in the book club enjoyed it as well, but I'm less concerned about that. If you want to see how this goes, convince your friends at work to read Wool together and get in touch. Both book clubs I've chatted with met during their lunch hours. I could do one of these a week!
Let's see, I got my blue Holston coveralls in the mail yesterday. I need to do some customization and then I'll get pics up. This is going to be my convention costume. Hell, I'm gonna be a cosplayer. That's terrifying.
More signed books going out today! I love personalizing these things and shipping them off. If you know anyone who needs to read this series and hasn't jumped on the e-book bandwagon, order a copy as a gift. All the links are over there to the right.
Okay, back to work. Peace out!
March 20, 2012
The Time Fence
People rarely sit on fences anymore. No, I'm not talking about the literal kind, though there does seem to be less of that going around as well. My father grew up on a farm, and I imagine in his day they sat on fences a lot and picked their teeth with shoots of hay. They likely spoke their opinions and hemmed and hawed about the state of the world, and some of these fence-sitters probably went back and forth on an issue or two, unable to make up their mind.
Nowadays? Not so much. Everyone seems to have a strong opinion about pretty much everything. If you don't have an opinion, a quick Google search will land you one. These days, we tend to stand on one side of a fence or the other while we toss insults and barbs over the rail. Less vacillating and more bloviating seems to be the trend. Hardly any perching, waiting, contemplating, hoping to come down on the right side. We just jump to the side our friends are on and root around for a nice, heavy rock.
In a recent Facebook debate, it was world population that we took sides over. I happen to be on the side of the United Nations, which performed the most rigorous study ever conducted on the issue of population growth and decline. Most people I know are on the other side of this fence. My wife works with one woman* who is mortified by how many humans there are. She trembles at the sight of growth forecasts, all of which conveniently end right before the looming decline (with the unwritten threat that this growth is going to continue forever).
In fact, most projections see population growth halting by 2050-2075. The rate of world growth peaked in the 1960′s. The people who study this sort of thing have been watching with some alarm at the massive drop-off in fertility rates everywhere that prosperity spreads. One of the great fears people have with feeding the hungry and tending to the sick is that this will free these populations to have more and more needy offspring, but that's not what happens. When parents know their kids are going to survive to old age, they scale back on having them, trending toward having two or even one.
Many people are choosing to have none at all. In China, the fear is that they took too many corrective measures. Some provinces have taken to urging parents to have more than one child, even offering money. The vast majority of parents are refusing. Part of this is the cultural shame ingrained by longstanding programs. The other part is the new reality of a non-agricultural lifestyle: Kids are now an economic liability, not an economic boon. They don't work the fields for us, they go to expensive colleges. And besides, we're too busy having fun in our new urban lifestyles where kids in their 40′s are still hanging out and flitting from job to job. We no longer worry about what we want to be when we "grow up." Now we wonder what we're gonna do when we retire (if we ever do).
The fear of the world's carrying capacity is wholly unfounded. Every human being alive today could fit in the state of Texas, each with their own townhouse. The rest of the world could be farmland and golf courses. And land is only 1/4 of the planet, which leads to our next fear: that we'll run out of water. Our planet is smothered in the stuff, and we fear it's going to vanish. Desalination is simple. Parts of Australia already rely on desalinated and piped water. When it gets in short enough supply, we'll engineer our way through the mess and start charging for it.
The same goes for power. If we ran out of everything else, the world would switch to nuclear and deal with the environmental non-factors and the fear-mongering. Today, we have the luxury of taking a stance on either side of this fence and yelling insults across. The choice may disappear one day when all the fossil fuels are too expensive to reach, and so will the fence. Which brings us back to the literal sorts of fences. Here's where all the opinions scatter: when real people have to climb real walls.
For the past century, people have argued voraciously on the merits and pitfalls of communism and capitalism. Forget the figurative fences, look for a moment at the literal ones. What do people do with their bodies? They cast them in one direction, often risking their lives to do so. East Germany built a wall to keep people in. The Soviet Union did the same. Cuba relies on its waters, and yet people fjord their way to Florida on coke-bottle rafts.
Capitalist countries on the other hand build walls to try and keep people from rushing in. Europe deals with this just as surely as the United States. And while time travel is not and never will be possible, I find it informative to imagine another kind of fence: A time fence.
Pose this question to yourself and to others: Would you get in a time machine that sent you back into the past if you had no control over where you would end up and who you might be? That is, you might be a woman living without any right to vote or the freedom to chose who you would marry. You might end up the property of another human being. You will live a shorter life full of difficult labor. You will be more aware of death because it will surround you. No refrigeration, no immunization, a limited and seasonal diet, arduous and rare travel.
And for any who delude themselves into thinking they could go back far enough to find a land of noble savages living in harmony with nature, that world is a complete fiction. The further back you go, the greater the chance that you will die at the hands of another human being. Life is ever more barbaric on the other side of this hypothetical fence of the "now."
Let's reverse the scenario. How many, instead, would get in a machine that took us into the future? Personally, you would have to kill me before you sent me off into the random past. I've read too much history to want to visit the place. The future, though? I'd be the first in line. Even though I couldn't know which country I'd end up in, what color or gender I would be, I've seen enough trends to know that the world is going to continue getting better and better for more and more people.
That's almost all it has ever done. And the steps backward have been fleeting and atypical. They are usually caused by the hands of a tyrant or warlord and eventually smoothed over by the larger progress of time. North Korea, one day, will be as prosperous as South Korea, another area where physical fences (and rivers) are braved, people moving from one theoretical world (communism) to another (capitalism).
We can talk all we want over figurative fences, but the people who have the ability to choose demonstrate the hard truth when they make a physical climb from one side of a wall to the other. If the Time Fence was a reality, I think the Jeremiahs and the Chicken Littles would quickly scurry over to my side. I think the line to crawl inside the Future Machine would be long indeed. And the one that led to the machine that heads back into the past? I doubt there would be a line for that machine at all. If there was, it would be full of crazy people, people who have not studied history, and the confused few who really, really, need to pee. ___________________________________________________
*It bears mentioning, perhaps, that this is also the only woman I know who is about to have her third kid and is dying for a few more.
Whatcha, Whatcha, Whatcha Want?
My wife and I were in the mood for a film this weekend. We used to go to the theater regularly but have weaned ourselves down to: almost never. I'm not sure if it's the chatty patrons, the cost, or the nice TV we have at home now or what. We just don't go. This weekend, however, we were in the mood for popcorn at a nickel a kernel, and she pulled up a list of what was showing.
Of course! How could I forget that John Carter is playing? The Edgar Rice Burroughs stories are currently at the top of the SF lists on Amazon (I glance now and then). I'd seen some of the previews, and it looked like a good popcorn-muncher. (I can suspend disbelief long enough to watch a dude bounce a hundred feet into the air and sling boulders the size of minivans but still be unable to break the chain loose that holds him to said rock).
Two seconds after getting my hopes up, however, and smelling the butter in the air, my wife pointed out the poor reviews. 51% on rottentomatoes.com. Probably not worth our $30.
Having not seen the film (I will when it comes out on video), I'm left guessing at how such a huge investment in an established franchise can fall flat. Producers know what you want, right? They know the tropes you like, the characters you'll root for, I mean . . . this is what they do for a living. How can they get it wrong? And so spectacularly?
Burroughs provided the stories on a platter. They've been tested and they have proved themselves on the market. The budget for the film was $250 million dollars. The talent was proven (a Pixar writer was at the helm). And yet, some are saying the projected losses could be in the neighborhood of $200 million, making it one of the biggest flops in Hollywood history.
Which brings us to Wool. Why would any studio green-light an unknown work of science fiction when mega-hits like John Carter can't win? They probably won't, but let me tell you why they should (as if any of you need convincing).
The problem with film studios right now (and big publishers and SELF publishers) is this: We have no idea what you want. That's right. We're constantly guessing and almost always wrong. And I think I know why.
My personal theory is that there are only a handful of stories to be told; the rest is variation. These most primal stories, the tropes, appeal to a genetic commonality amongst us, a sense of right and wrong, of good vs. evil, of underdog vs. long odds, stories of love, tragedy, change, and accomplishment. This is why plots that are thousands of years old, told in foreign languages to people of supposedly vastly different cultures, continue to resonate with us today. THE ILIAD still makes sense, still moves us emotionally, which is strange when you think about it. It's why I don't buy that we are products of our cultures; our cultures must be products of us. I'm not convinced that we've changed all that much in the last few thousand years.
The problem, then, is one of oversaturation. It's what killed WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE and SURVIVOR. As much as we love tropes, we want something new; we just don't know what that is until we see it. If JOHN CARTER is too much like AVATAR, we're going to be bored enough to note the plot holes and weak characters. The CGI isn't going to distract us. That worked for TITANIC, and it'll never work again.
WOOL's viral success highlights the ignorance we as producers have for what you want as an audience. I never mentioned nor promoted WOOL until after it had already taken off. I tossed it out there and it did its own thing for months. Not because I didn't like it, but because I assumed no one else would. It was too non-traditional. Now, there are tropes hidden within the plot (and it becomes more and more traditional as the series continues), but that first short story should never have gone out in the shape it took, not if there were any gatekeepers to warn me and tweak it first. WOOL ignores too many rules. Which ended up being a good thing.
Movie studios need to embrace this truth: Almost everything has been tried, so let's give new a chance. Have you seen MOON? One of the best sci-fi flicks I've seen in ages. Haunting and poignant. I don't think it hit a single theater near me, and I'm still too caught up in the rational to believe it could have been a monster hit even if it had been given the right push. Still, I suspect it would have done better than JOHN CARTER. I suspect WOOL would do very well if given an honest account on the big screen, and not because I think my shit's all that great, I honestly don't. I never gave WOOL a chance until readers told me through sales and reviews that they liked it. Which is why I think we should be listening to you rather than chasing those handful of tired tales paddling around in our collective gene pools. Sure, we may intuitively sense that these are the stories you want, but you've already heard them. I suspect you're looking for something different. I just wish (along with every ad expert in the country) that I knew what the hell that was.
March 16, 2012
Questions about my process
I received an email yesterday in response to the Reddit AMA, and I asked the author if I could respond in public and use his email as an informal Q&A. He said to go for it; so here it is.
Hey Hugh,
Hey Mike!
I have a suggestion for a blog entry for you if you're willing. How about a rundown on your writing process? It may not resonate with all of your fans, but if there's more of them like me (who are trying their own hand at storytelling) then I think it would be a great blog post.
Great idea!
I tried again to post on your forum to start a thread on this subject, but my iPad doesn't seem to let me. A blog post might be better anyway since you seem to get much more traffic in that format.
Yeah, my forums are screwy. Why don't you send me your iPad and I'll spend a few months trying to diagnose the problem?
Specifically, a "typical" day for you as a writer (if there is one) would be pretty cool. What I am interested in personally though is how you go about writing your stories. Are you outline-heavy at the beginning? How often do you edit yourself as you are writing? (not necessarily grammar and sentence structure…but instead plot and character development, scene transitions, etc.)
My typical day starts at 6:30 with a bowl of cereal. I check my email and read any new Amazon reviews. I peek at Goodreads to see if anything there requires my attention. By the time I'm done with my cereal, I'm ready to start writing.
My manscripts stay open all the time, and I never turn my Macbook Air off until it seizes and I have to do a hard-reset. Swiping three fingers over to the left brings up one of my works. I currently have four that I'm working on.
I try to end each writing session in the middle of a piece of dialog or during some bit of action. It makes picking up the next day far easier. Stopping at the conclusion of a chapter is poison. Never check your email or do anything at the end of a chapter. It's like parking a rig on an upslope. In fact, writing a manuscript is easier if you pretend you have no reverse gear at all. It makes you seriously consider where you leave the thing. Always keep a quick and easy escape for when you buckle back in.
I aim for 2,000 words a day when I'm writing. While revising, I don't keep count. I need far less self-motivation when revising. I can do it all day. I start with a general idea of my story and characters (daydreamed and memorized). Then I'll make a list of scenes, which become my chapters. I type these out and arrange them, and then I start at the beginning and just write as loosely as I can.
I very rarely revise while I write. I only do this when I feel stuck or bored with the story. I'll go back and read/revise from the beginning to "get back into the book again." This often comforts me by seeing that some part of the work is decent, and I up my game moving forward. I stagger back and forth like this sometimes when I get near the end of a work. Satisfying conclusions are always the hardest for me (this might be true for most writers. I suspect it is).
If you're like me, ideas for stories almost pop out of nowhere… That isn't the problem… the problem I have is the confidence to go on with that idea. Second guessing and self-doubt plague me during the whole process. Do you have the same type of issues? And if so, what helps you to push on?
Self-doubt drips from my every pore. It's gotten worse as I've gained readership. I'm convinced that there's a billion better reads out there and so why are people wasting time with my drivel? And yeah, the ideas are numerous; the time is short. Picking one story and sticking with it is difficult, especially since the act of creation is more exciting than the slog of hammering out the details.
The good part of this is that you'll only write the "stickiest" of stories, the ones that you can't shake loose. And these are the ones the readers are dying for.
I read your Reddit posts. They're really really interesting and informative. I figured though that the subject matter was more about self-publishing as an author instead of just you as an author… That's one reason why I didn't ask you this stuff there.
Thanks for slogging through those posts! I had a great time participating in the AMA. Glad someone suggested it.
So think about it. I'm excited to hear about how you do your thing… I think others would enjoy it as well. I know I've told you this before, but you are the one who inspired me to really get serious about my writing… I've spent 20 years just piddling around with it. I should have started sooner.
That's an incredibly humbling compliment. And I share your pain. I wish I'd begun writing sooner. Not that I think I could have created stories with as much depth at a younger age, but I would have a lot more practice and source material to build upon. Alas, I comfort myself by taking pride in having taken this craft seriously at all. I could have looked back in another twenty years wondering why I squandered that time and didn't write more.
Mike
Thanks, Mike.
Sent from my iPad
Seriously. Send that thing to me for a few months. I want to do some troubleshooting with it.
March 15, 2012
Yes, the forums are screwy
The forums on this site were an afterthought. They were tossed together years ago because it was free, and I was bored, and I like forums. For some reason, I can no longer log in as an admin; I haven't been able to for over a year. Which was fine while everything was working. Today, not so much.
Until I can sort it out, feel free to engage in senseless banter in the comments to this post. Or open up a fan site on the web somewhere. Or volunteer to be my admin and we'll install some new forum software up in this mother.
March 13, 2012
Reddit's "Ask Me Anything"
A Facebook friend suggested I start an IAmA/AMA thread on Reddit. I had no idea what this was, but it turns out to be a pretty cool little feature. Anyone can post who or what they are (IAmA fireman/doctor/astronaut), and the AMA stands for: "Ask me Anything."
So I created one about being a self-published author who was actually making a living off his works. And people are already asking me questions! It's a lot like the interactions we have here on my site, but with random passerbys instead of people who have read my work.
Pretty cool, eh? Check it out: http://redd.it/quh9y
Why am I writing this?
I think I'm going to have to publish I, ZOMBIE under a different name. This foulness is going to make it impossible to ever run for office. I seriously doubt my wife is going to help me edit this one. I can already hear the conversation:
Her: "What is the point of all this?"
Me: *shrugs*
Her: "That's what I thought."
March 11, 2012
The Lasting Allure of Free
It's an oxymoronic truth in almost all forms of commercial art: The more you give away, the more you sell. There's very little I could add to this that Neil Gaiman hasn't already covered. As he discovered with American Gods, when he offered an entire novel for free on his website, sales exploded. He had to fight tooth and nail with Harper Collins to get permission to do this (with his own work, no less), and even afterward, I'm sure the fine people at Harper thought it all some big coincidence. But it's something that Kindle Authors are learning and even quantifying.
On the Kindle Board forums, there's an 87 page thread about going "free" on the Kindle store and the effect is has on rankings and sales. Amazon must know how powerful this tool is, they only give us 5 free days for every three months. Authors agonize over when and how to employ their days. Two in a row? Three? Spaced out over the months? And then there are the websites we hope and pray to get a mention on: Pixel of Ink, E-Reader News Today, and dozens more.
Most authors spend many hours preparing for their free day. There are forms to fill out at the above websites, admins to email and beg, a lot of sitting around with fingers crossed, hoping.
The first time I offered Wool for free, 14,000 people downloaded it in a single day. Of course, a slim fraction likely read the story; one imagines there are digital hoarders who snag hundreds of free books with no time or inclination to read them all. But some must have read the story, because reviews took a bounce. As did sales and ranking.
Last week, The Plagiarist went free for two days. This short story has been one of my most obscure. It's about the length of Wool and similar in theme if not in tone. It was ranked in the high thousands before it went free. Afterward?
In the top 300 of the entire Kindle store. With 12 new reviews, which should entice others to give it a try. It's #1 in one sub-category and #2 in two others (behind Wool Omnibus. 
)
Here's another area where the ignorance of big publishers stymies good authors like Neil Gaiman and gives us indie folk a shot. If they knew what they were doing, they would offer some of their books for free as well, squeezing us out of the top lists. Their sales would undoubtedly go up. It has been proven over and over by both traditional authors and indies.
But this kind of flexibility and forward-thinking is in short supply. It requires doing something great for readers and trusting the process to reward you in the long run. One more reason I enjoy having control over my product and being able to work directly with my audience, rather than through someone else.
