Mike Schneider's Blog, page 79
November 13, 2012
Help!
A reader who wants to discuss the ending of TBDNE on the Amazon forums…
November 12, 2012
Pinterest and "The Red Journal"
In the 1st edition of TBDNE, Mike finds a red journal lying on his old bed in his parents’ house that he cannot remember writing in. Yet, when he opens the book and looks inside he discovers that it contains his handwriting. As Mike reads the journal, a few entries are included in the text of the novel.
The red journal is in fact mine. I wrote in it during my first and second years of college at NYU. The entries that appear in TBDNE were written by teenage me. They are either completely unedited or edited for cosmetic purposes only.
One of the changes I made while revising TBDNE for the paperback release was digitizing the red journal. As one of the novel’s primary themes has to do with the nature of what constitutes reality - specifically online where, for instance, your Facebook friends can make shit up, manipulate photos, and create events that never take place - I thought it was important for the red journal to reflect that theme. In the first edition, I betrayed this idea by making the journal a physical object.
In the second edition of the novel, Mike finds a scrap of paper lying on his bed with a drawing of the Pinterest logo on it, as well as the words “theredjournal.” He then taps pinterest.com/theredjournal into the browser on his phone and begins to read the journal entries he can’t remember writing. This was my fix for getting the red journal digitized - and just like every other link in the novel it actually works in the real world. Go to pinterest.com/theredjournal if you want to read the rest of what I wrote when I was a freshman at NYU (minus a few pages I had to omit for the sake of the privacy of people who were mentioned).
November 10, 2012
How To Dress Well: "Cold Nites"
If I was adapting TBDNE into a movie, I would most definitely find a way to incorporate this song into it.
Edit: I had “When I Was In Trouble” up before, but I think I like this song more…
November 6, 2012
Update Email From Amazon
For those who purchased TBDNE prior to Oct 15, 2012 and have not yet updated your copy„ I received the following email last night from Amazon:
Hello,
We are happy to announce that an updated version of your past Kindle purchase of This Book Does Not Exist by Mike Schneider is now available. The version you received had the following issues that have been corrected:
Significant editorial issues were present.
Also, new content has been added.
You can receive this new version by going to the Manage Your Kindle page at http://amazon.com/MYKupdate. Find the book in your Kindle Library and click on the “update available” link next to the book’s title. Within 5 minutes, any of your devices that have the eBook currently downloaded and have an active wireless connection will be updated automatically.
Alternatively, you can reply to this email with the word “Yes” in the first line of your response. Your e-mail response must come from the e-mail address associated with your Amazon account. We will update your book within two hours of receiving your email.
This book has undergone significant changes, so once we send you the updated version of this book you will no longer be able to view any highlights, bookmarks, and notes that have been made in your current version and your furthest reading location will be lost.
We thank you for your business with Amazon.
Sincerely,
Customer Service Department
Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com
November 1, 2012
October 31, 2012
TBDNE as Portal Fiction
Two weeks ago, Rachel Brown wrote a widely circulated blog post on how “YA Portal Fiction” had been deemed unsellable by agents and publishers. Your first question upon reading this is probably the same as my first question: “WTF is portal fiction?” Apparently, it’s a sub-genre of young adult fiction - usually seeped in fantasy - in which characters enter another world through a portal of one form or another… Like a door (think The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, a book I loved when I was a kid).
If you read Brown’s piece, you’ll see the overarching sentiment is that portal fiction doesn’t connect with readers because the worlds the characters enter are too detached from reality for dramatic stakes to become meaningful. No one cares if young Timmy can help the King of Outlandia stave off a menacing tribe of trolls since it has no impact on Timmy’s life back at home. In addition, young adult readers seemingly do not care about worlds that do not reflect their own - and who can blame them?
This of course made me think about the concept of the Door and TBDNE in general. Although my book isn’t necessarily for young adults, many of the themes apply to teenagers, and the emotion at the center of the narrative is certainly applicable to anyone who has ever fallen in love or felt crushingly alone. Since I never knew there was a sub-genre called “portal fiction,” I obviously never categorized TBDNE as such - but it is difficult to argue against its inclusion based solely on the existence of the Door to the other world.
Having said that, it is equally clear to me that TBDNE gets around the exact problem Brown refers to her in post by firmly grounding the other world in reality first and then drawing that world into the real world. As my stand-in Mike makes obvious, the stakes - whether or not he will survive long enough to reunite with the love of his life, Naomi - are very real. And because the other world is grounded in his memories and imagination there is never any disconnect between reality and the protagonist. The reader, therefore, can easily remain attached.
Ultimately, what this suggests to me is that TBDNE is actually what publishers and agents thought was impossible - portal fiction that connects emotionally.
Mike
October 30, 2012
If You Bought the 1st Edition, 2nd Edition Now Available As Free Download
Here’s how to get the 2nd Edition of TBDNE if you bought the 1st Edition:
Sign in to Amazon. Underneath your account, click “Manage Your Kindle” and then search for “This Book Does Not Exist” in your Kindle Library. After you select the book, you’ll see a button next to the title that says “update available.” Click on that and Amazon will send the update to your Kindle.
Feel free to email me if you have any problems.
If you’re reading this and you don’t already have TBDNE, it’s available in the Kindle Store for a limited time at $.99.
October 23, 2012
Matthew’s adoration for the book is of course humbling -...
Matthew’s adoration for the book is of course humbling - but the idea to use text to speech on Kindle to get the robo-voice is dope as hell.
October 22, 2012
Self-Publishing To Survive
With the second edition release of This Book Does Not Exist I’ve been getting some questions related to self-publishing, specifically, Why did you publish a book yourself?
Just under three years ago, I was emotionally distraught. I remember breaking down in tears on the bathroom floor one morning in October of 2009. In a last ditch effort for stability, I moved across country, from Los Angeles to Cleveland, driving 37 hours without sleeping. I had lost the love of my life. I had been writing a novel as therapy. When I got to Cleveland, I had to finish it. That was my only goal. About eight months later, at this at least, I was successful.
I knew “self-published” was a dirty word, code for “not good enough.” But I didn’t care what the literary elite thought. I needed to survive. If I didn’t get the book out of my system and into the world I knew I might not.
So I did.
Almost three years later, I’m still here.
That counts for more than seeing TBDNE on display in Barnes & Noble.
October 19, 2012
TBDNE: Second Edition Available Now {Kindle and Paperback}
In July, I decided it made sense to release TBDNE in paperback. Compelled to stay independent, I went to CreateSpace – which is linked with Amazon – and downloaded a template. Next, I had to copy and paste the text of my manuscript into the template. I started that process committed to not changing a word…
Three months later, after changing 17,357 words – or 22.7% of the original text – I finished “formatting the novel for paperback,” having in actuality done a complete revision and edit of the text, a director’s cut, if you will.
Closely going through something I wrote over two years ago was peculiar. Mostly I just saw all the extra words… All the unneeded adjectives and adverbs and long-winded internal musings… All the things that got in the way of the story and the plot and, most important, the emotion of the characters. Ultimately, I was able to remove thousands of words without changing the overall arc of the narrative, improving upon the reading experience by making it more fluid and direct.
In reality, every writing project would benefit from being put down and returned to two years later. Traditionally, writers have not been afforded this luxury. The flexibility of digital publishing, however, has changed that. Books are more liquid. They can easily be amended and revised. Files can be altered and re-uploaded in a matter of moments. In this case, the process allowed me to take a well-received novel and make it even better.
Still, the essence of the first edition remains. This is the book I wrote to survive a breakup. I was perhaps too shy to talk about it at the time of publication in 2010, but what I wrote was a unique combination of memoir and fiction. While in the middle of crafting the first draft, I left Los Angeles and spent two months in Cleveland. Most nights I would go out, explore the city, and then come home and write about what happened. As the Door manipulates Mike’s world in the novel, I would manipulate what I experienced into fiction related to the very real pain I was trying to overcome. One night, I got lost in East Cleveland on my way to Cleveland Heights to see a movie at the Cedar Lee Theatre. Another night, I drove past a house in Tremont with a sign on it: “Come to Jesus today because tomorrow may be too late.” Against all odds, I even had dinner at an Olive Garden with a girl (albeit not near the airport).
For fans of the prior version, your support over the past two years has been as rewarding as anything I’ve experienced in my career. I’ve been touched by your messages. I hope you and your friends enjoy this new edit even more. Reading it should be fun: You can pick out the details I’ve changed. And please feel free to reach out to me with questions if you’re curious as to why I made certain decisions.
Now for the logistics…
The paperback edition can be purchased on CreateSpace here and on Amazon here.
The new Kindle edition can be purchased here.
If you’ve already bought the first edition on Kindle and want to read the new version, you have four options:
1) Get the paperback.
2) Wait for Amazon to email you with instructions on how to update the novel on your Kindle or Kindle app. Unfortunately, this could take up to four weeks.
3) Delete the novel from your Kindle Library and then purchase the new version.
To delete TBDNE from your Kindle Library follow these instructions - Log in to Amazon. Scroll over “Your Account.” A window will pop up that includes the option to “Manage Your Kindle.” Click there. Doing so will open a list of all the Kindle books you own. Find This Book Does Not Exist. Highlight the “Actions” tab associated with the novel on the far right side of the page. The option to “Delete from library” will appear. Click it. Confirm deletion. Then visit the TBDNE page in the Kindle Store and buy the book again. The new second edition will download to your Kindle or Kindle app.
4) Email me {mikejudes@gmail.com} the last sentence in the first edition of the book. In response, you will receive an email within 24 hours containing the text of the second edition, which should hold you over until the update becomes available. This is also an option if you’re sentimental about the first edition and would therefore like to hold on to it.
For updates, check this blog and the Facebook fan page. I’ll be posting whenever I have something interesting to share.
Talk with you soon,
Mike
