Hugh Howey's Blog, page 57

The ‘S’ in USB Stands for ‘Silo’

And the ‘B’ stands for ‘Badass’.

Yes, indeed, these babies are getting made. I’m going to have five extra to give away to random newsletter subscribers. If you don’t subscribe already, the form is at the top of my home page or over there to the left of this post. Each USB stick will contain WOOL, SHIFT, and DUST in both .epub and .mobi, with directions for how to load them onto your reading device.

DUST Pre-Orders

Well, this is a first! Because of the pre-order page I set up on Amazon, the release date for the e-book is locked in for the 17th of August. Those of you who aren’t new to these parts know how I usually release my e-books. I set a date, beat that target by a week or more, and then surreptitiously press the “publish” button when no one is looking. I don’t announce anything, just wait for the book to be discovered, and then go crawl under a rock while the reviews pour in, fearing they’re all going to be brutal.

I’m not able to do that this time! Which means the physical edition is going to catch up with the digital edition. In fact, I’m expecting to see the first boxes of books hit my stoop around the 7th of August. I’m going to pounce on these like they’re a box of cupcakes and get them out the door to you as swiftly as I can (mind the slobber).

That means many of you (if you are in the U.S.) will find that your paperback copy of DUST arrives before the book is even out. And if that ain’t cool, I don’t know what is. It won’t be a huge difference, though, so no complaining from the Kindle-only crowd. You all have typically had two or three week head starts on the paperback people. About time they had something go their way.

I ordered extra copies of both the Gorgeous Edition (the yellowish cover up there at the top of my website and on the sidebar) and the Ugly Edition (which can be ordered right here). Any order made before Wednesday or Thursday should go out with the first batch. And I’m going to livestream my mom and I signing all of these books and packing them up, so if there’s any embarrassing questions you  have for her, jot them down and have them ready.

Two Years Ago . . .

On Tuesday, July 30th, it will be two years to the day that I uploaded the first Wool story. It didn’t feel like a momentous occasion at the time. In fact, I’d forgotten the exact date. It took Amazon to remind me. Looking back, it almost feels impossible that Wool went up a mere two years ago. So much has happened since then.

The first two months of that time, very little happened. Or maybe the signs were there, and I just wasn’t cognizant of them. August and September probably saw a hundred sales between them, which should have raised an eyebrow. I just remember October being the aberrational month. I spent all of October writing Molly Fyde and the Darkness Deep, and I put a lot of pressure on myself to finish before NaNoWriMo began. At the same time, I was watching reviews pile up for Wool. A dozen or so over a week. It took months to get a dozen reviews on other books. All of them were glowing. By the end of October, I knew something was up.

I stayed up until midnight on October 31st of 2011. I remember posting on Facebook that I was close to 1,000 sales for the month. ONE THOUSAND! It would never happen again, I was certain. Sitting on 980-something with a handful of returns, I begged for a few more sales. It had nothing to do with gaining readers at that point, just an irrational love of round numbers. Before midnight, I took a screen capture of my KDP dashboard with the 1,018 sales, which got me over a thousand even with the returns factored in. I went to sleep exhausted, confident that I’d just witnessed the apex of my career, and dreaming of the sequels I would write the next morning in lieu of the NaNo novel I had planned.

1,018 sales at 99 cents apiece amounted to $356.30. Imagine having the best month of your artistic career, and it comes to what you make in a week shelving books for $10 an hour. No part of me considered putting in my notice at work. None. No part of me thought I’d ever pay my bills with my writing. None. All I could think about was that I had over a thousand readers, and many of them were writing reviews and emails begging for the next entry. On November 1st, my NaNoWriMo.org page updated, I started writing and outlining the rest of the series.

As part of NaNo, I volunteered at my public library to sit and write with the youth NaNo’ers. It was my second year doing this, and I got as much out of it as they did. In 2011, NaNo went a little weird for me. I was writing three individual pieces, and I had the first one – Wool 2 – in rough draft by the end of the first week. I write better in the morning and revise better at night, so I took to writing Wool 3 before work and during my lunch break. At night, I revised Wool 2. By the end of November, Wool 2 was edited and complete, and Wool 3 only needed a pass for typos. Wool 4 was in complete draft and ready for editing. I’d written 60,000 words and completed another NaNo. But what was crazy was that I had also published in the month of November.

Most NaNoWriMo books are ready for consumption the following year, if then. During the month of November, I watched the sales for Wool rocket along. Remember that month in October that I would never again approach? I sold 3,000 copies of Wool in November. The demand for more was growing. In the middle of all of this, I went to Colorado to spend Thanksgiving with my father. Amber came along, and a good friend of mine joined us. This friend is the author among us. He has two books with Harper Collins, and is a freaking genius. He knew that I wrote and self-published, and thought it was cute. I told him about the sudden rise in sales in October and the little books I was writing. There was more of him pinching my cheek and telling me how cute I am. I begged him to read the work, and he informed me that friends shouldn’t do that. I saw his point.

Back in Boone, NC, I went to the NaNo Wrap Party at the library. A late night of pizza and writing to get to the 50,000 word goal, it was also a launch party for Wool 2. How surreal. While moving among these young writers and listening to their dreams, we were able to refresh my KDP page and watch thousands of people gobble down a book that just went live that morning. A book I’d started just four weeks earlier. A NaNoWriMo book shot up to the top of the science fiction bestseller list, and it was still the month of November. I doubt that had happened before or that it’ll happen again. It was just crazy timing all-around.

December came, and my record month of November saw another tripling. 10,000 copies of Wool. Thousands of copies of Wool 2. And Wool 3 went live on December 4th. It took most of the month to make Wool 4 ready, as it was the size of a novella on its own. It hit right before Christmas. At this time, I still didn’t dream of writing for a living. I saw that I would earn a few thousand dollars from my writing, money that I never dreamed of, but that was it. On Christmas morning, I was sitting on the exact couch I’m sitting on now here at my mother’s place in West Jefferson, and I opened up a blank document and typed “Wool 5″. The end was near.

The truth was that my journey had barely begun. Wool 5 came out in January, and a reader asked if I would combine the books into one to make downloading them easier. I created the Wool Omnibus and threw a yellow fallout shelter symbol on the cover that looked horrible to me and would later become a collectible. I didn’t think many people would buy this edition. Why not start with the 99 cent book and see if you wanted to go further? And then I watched as the five individual books slid down the rankings and the Omnibus rose up above them.

For a couple of months, maybe three or four, the five Wool books were obnoxious on Amazon. They sat at the top of the Science Fiction > Anthology chart, taking up the top five spots. This is where I hung out, taking screen captures. Meanwhile, the same titles crept up the general Science Fiction chart. Soon, they were in spots 2-6. They eventually took over the top spot as well. But it was the Omnibus that was about to do something remarkable. It began climbing the overall Amazon bestseller charts.

Twice, the book flirted with the top 100. It cracked it once for e-books, but not among all books. I took a shot of it at #101 before it began to slide back and settle around #120. By this time, I had put in my two week notice at work. I’d begun receiving calls from agents and people in Hollywood. BBC America wanted the rights for a TV show. I declined representation from two agents before Kristin Nelson talked sense into me. The Wool Omnibus cracked the top 100, and I probably did a dance. Not sure if I recorded it. Every milestone was a sign that it was all going to end at any moment now. Tomorrow. Next week. Just enjoy every hour while it’s here. I can always get another day job, I told myself. I was writing First Shift and tracking sales with a mix of glee and the grimace of a man who expects imminent collision. But things kept going up and up.

Boing Boing was one of the first major media mentions. There had been a few bloggers and dozens of reviewers, but this was big enough to pin the needle. Wool Omnibus shot into the top 50 on all of Amazon. I sold more books in a day than I had in that month of October the year before, and this was at $4.99 (I would later raise the price a dollar due to complaints from readers that my books were too cheap!)

The next splash came that summer from Gizmodo. I had recently signed a deal with Random House UK, and they’d put together a brilliant trailer for the book. The editor in chief at Giz was a huge fan of Wool, and he used the trailer as an excuse to pimp the book. The Omnibus went into the top 10 on all of Amazon and cracked the New York Times bestseller chart. There were more media mentions. A dozen foreign deals. The low 6-figure offers from US publishers back in March were now in the mid-to-high 6-figures.

I released I, Zombie and Second Shift in the second half of the year. I wrote Third Shift for NaNoWriMo in November. At this time, I had landed an impossible deal with Simon & Schuster that not only allowed me to retain the digital rights and all worldwide rights, it was a print-only deal that would revert even those rights after a set period of time. It was everything we’d ever dreamed of. All it took was walking away from a few 7-figure deals, which was both easier than you’d imagine and as hard as you’d expect. (Yeah, a powerful mix of emotions).

The year anniversary of Wool came with a ton going on. Amber and I moved to Florida. She took a new job much closer to her parents. We were wrestling with a new house and a new home; I was traveling as much as I had while captaining yachts; and every day was another foreign deal or something major to negotiate with Kristin. Somehow, I was still writing every day. Including Wool 5 – which at 50,000+ words is as long as Catcher in the Rye, Frankenstein, or To Kill a Mockingbird – I wrote five full novels in 2012. I also wrote two short stories, both of which were picked up by publications that require editorial review. We sold a house, bought another one, moved 12 hours away, and spent holidays with family. In July, I made Wool permanently free to celebrate this first anniversary. A year later, and I just a few hours ago sent the files for Dust to both my e-book formatter and Createspace. The series is done. It’s been a wild two years.

What next? I wish I could say I was taking a break, but I’m not. I’ll be gone more than I’ll be home between now and Christmas. Six countries to visit for book releases, five domestic trips for various functions, a Molly Fyde book to finish and publish, another NaNoWriMo to contemplate, and a new series to crack open. After this year, though, I’m going to take it easy. Slow down. Relax a bit. Hey, it’s right at a year since the last time I said that!

 

WOOL is $1.99 Today!

Boy, the timing on this couldn’t be more perfect. With DUST a mere three weeks away, WOOL has been discounted to $1.99 for one day only! Now would be the perfect time to start the series. Imagine not having to wait for any of the sequels! So . . . tell a friend. If you think they’ll enjoy the book. And when they scoff at reading sci-fi . . . jiggle their brains with the hilt of your lightsaber.

WOOL on Amazon.com for $1.99

Guest Blog from Silo S-5

Bruce from Oplin, TX writes:

I bought an Atlas F missile silo because I thought it would be cool to have one, remodel it and live in it. It is.

The first time I was in it, it seemed to be “sleeping”…sleeping but alive. Never had an experience like that before. Pretty weird. But it wasn’t ominous…..just waiting. The place had – and still does – a post-apocalyptic look – graffiti and roughly cut pieces of steel everywhere the result of being being partially salvaged – reminding me of the ancient subways in Planet of the Apes.

There were no guard rails, the floors (grating, just as Hugh describes) was cut up during the salvaging process making getting around …awkward, dangerous and foolish. Did I mention foolish?

Anyway, I had to buy it and try to bring it back to life…or at least put it on life support, slowing the decay, until maybe later someone can actually resuscitate it.

Technically, I live in the LCC, the Launch Control Center – now the Lunch Control Center – which is a smaller cylinder (compared to the silo) and connected to it by a tunnel. The LCC could be thought of as the IT levels and upper administrative levels described in Wool/Shift, all crowded into a smaller but totally separate space. With the missile in place, there was little room for people.

I found the Silo Saga series while looking for a book to read on Amazon. Hugh’s series was the first thing that popped up. I have no idea why. I read little sci-fi these days and never search for missile related books. So it was sort of strange that it appeared but it did, and it caught my eye. When I read the sub title “Silo Sagas”…well, it was just too tempting and I ordered both books.

It was a continuous, amazing journey as detail after detail of the “silo experience” – good and bad – appeared. And they never stopped coming. Hugh’s recreation – on a very, very large scale compared to my experience – was stunningly accurate. Scaled up, but right on. The spiral staircase, which really hooked me as the central “character”, is indeed the center of it all and the main focus. You cannot navigate the silo (the real, smaller one) without it. And it isn’t as easy as it might sound.

Atlas F sites are only 8 levels or 185 feet top to bottom. But going up and down is a chore…especially up. And you do get dizzy if you use it too rapidly, just as he describes in Wool and Shift. If you have to carry tools or equipment – as I have – you only want to do it once and do it going down. Dropping a tool and having to retrieve it simply sucks….I never found quite the right name to call myself when I did this…though I really tried.

And you have never seen dark until you have been in an unlit, totally closed space…like a missile silo. Actually, dark doesn’t really describe it. There is NO light. At all. I don’t know what the word is but “dark” doesn’t cut it.

All in all, I was somewhat disbelieving when I discovered Hugh has never been in a silo….but seems he didn’t need to be. What a cool read….

-Bruce from Silo S-5 Olpin, TX

___________________________

Hugh: Read more about Bruce and his silo in this Wired Magazine article. And you know what’s really crazy? Bruce also has a cat named Shadow. When he got to that part of SHIFT, I think he became convinced that I’m keeping tabs on him. Here’s what Bruce had to say about his silo friend:

And as for my Shadow, she is a worthless piece of crap…and is NEVER in the LCC, where I live (since I am IT, mayor and sheriff). But oddly, I find myself talking to her in much the same way Jimmy/Solo does with his Shadow when I am working around the place. Someone is better than no one….usually.

Editor Extraordinaire!

There are a handful of questions that I get over and over. People want to know how I marketed WOOL (A: I didn’t). They want to know what in the world Amber sees in me (A: No clue). And they want to know who I use for an editor, because my prose is so damn tight (That’s what they say, not me!)

My drafts go through several revisions before my wife and my mom tear the manuscripts apart. Then it’s off to the betas before a final round of edits and publication. That’s how things went until David Gatewood came along.

David reached out over a year ago to point out 160 things wrong with the WOOL OMNIBUS. No kidding. That was the title of his e-mail to me, straight out of the blue. And so began a wonderful friendship and a collaboration. David has been an invaluable part of the last five books I’ve published. He is the absolute best at what he does. Not only does he make my work better, he makes the editorial process fun. I laugh out loud at his comments. I read them aloud to my wife. I publish them under a pen name. The film rights have already been optioned.

I’ve been begging David to hang a shingle, but he’s been content to dabble with my works. Until now. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my absolute pleasure to share his brand new website with you: http://lonetrout.com/ If you are looking for an editor for your work, this is the man to harangue. I guarantee he will be in high demand once others use him and begin spreading the word. The guy is freaky smart and wickedly funny. You’ll love him. I know I do.

Are You Freakin’ Kidding?

No, I’m not kidding. I’m spending my morning editing the next Molly Fyde novel, working my way through from the beginning so I can see what needs to be done with the final few chapters. (This is the book I abandoned nearly two years ago when Wool took off. I was 90% of the way through it when I would’ve taken a break for NaNoWriMo. But my NaNo ended up being Wool 2, and I haven’t had a chance to get back to this novel in two years.)

So I’m reading along this morning, making some tweaks here and there, and I find Molly and Cole winding their way up a staircase. Now, keep in mind that Wool 2 had not yet been written — nor had the first Wool yet sold a hundred copies — when I wrote this draft of Molly Fyde and the Darkness Deep. But I just came across this little gem, written two years ago:

“Couldn’t they wire up an elevator in this place?” Cole asked, huffing deeply for effect.

Now, I love making mention of other books wherever I can get away with it and not make it too obvious. But this is not only too obvious, it’s completely unintentional! I think I’ll leave it, though, as it’s sure to draw a chuckle from a reader or two.

Monroe Meet-Up Next Week!

I’m really excited about this meet-up. Oasis is a downtown Monroe staple. They’ve been around for twenty years, and they have the best hotdogs you’ve ever shoved into your hotdog hole. When I released my debut novel back in 2009, Oasis hosted my very first book signing. I set up a folding table and chair on the sidewalk and hugged a parade of childhood friends and family who came out to support a poor artist trying his damnedest to make a go of this writing thing. It was a great time. It’s time to do it again.

On July 23rd, I’m going back to the places that hosted me when I was just starting out. I’ll be on WIXE radio in the morning, and then I’m heading to Oasis for hotdogs and to sign books. I’ll show up around 11:00 and stay until 1:00. Take a long lunch break and come see me!

Edit: I should mention that I won’t be selling books at this event, so bring what you already have to get signed or order a copy ahead of time.

The Ugly Edition

I spent ten minutes fiddling with colors until I hit one that induced a gag. And then I knew I had the right color of orange-brown for this ugly edition of DUST.

I didn’t want to do this at all. I mean, look at the cover art Jason Smith from Random House came up with. That would be his three covers over there on the sidebar, and they are drop-dead gorgeous. But there are a handful of readers who have the ugly editions of WOOL and SHIFT, and they wanted an ugly edition of DUST to accompany them. A lesson here on being careful what you wish for.

The way I’m handling this one is a bit different. With the last two books, the ugly edition was all you could get for a period of time, and then I made the cover purty. This edition is so ugly, I don’t want people to accidentally get their hands on it through Amazon or a bookstore, so it’ll only be available through me directly. And probably for only as long as I can stomach to look at the thing. Again, this is just for those of you crazy enough to own nasty when you could just as easily own sublime. I highly recommend NOT getting this edition. The Random House covers are spectacular to behold. Trust me.

If you already ordered the other edition when what you wanted was this one, you can shoot me an email to make the switch. Or give the pretty one to someone you like and order one of these for someone you hate.

Sign my book to:

I’m a Genius – Part VIII

There was an interesting piece on The Tyee this week about the importance of seeing PACIFIC RIM in theaters. The author laments the steady stream of sequels and remakes and cautions that if we do not support original content, we’ll get less and less of it in the future. As I’m reading this piece, I’m reminded of another story I saw recently that listed the original films that haven’t fared well on the big screen. White House Down, After Earth, and now Pacific Rim. It doesn’t bode well for a Wool release if studio execs look at recent history before pulling the trigger. And so I came up with an ingenious idea. Hollywood, are you listening? You should put numbers after every film.

That’s right. I want to see Wool 4 hit the big screen. You can bill it as “Bigger and better than Wool 3!” Or: “Everything missing from Wool 2 is right here!” Also: “If you missed the other films, don’t worry. Now’s the time to get on board!” How about: “Runs a full two hours longer than Wool 1!”

It doesn’t matter that there aren’t three other films out there. That’s not important. What matters is the mark of pedigree, the sense that the other movies must’ve done very well (I.E. a bunch of people paid $20 to go see them), so this one must be pretty good too! There weren’t 122 other The Taking of Pelham’s. There weren’t 60 other movies about baseball and asterixis. All you knew was these movies must rock to have such insane followings.

Make it happen, Hollywood. It’s brilliant. It’s the best idea I’ve had since . . . well, that last time.