Michael W. Lucas's Blog, page 26

Updates to Print Bookstore and FAQ

I’ve sold print books via Aerio for a few years, but they are shutting down at the end of February. I just overhauled every single book entry on my site to point print sales at my new bookshop.org bookstore. Sales through this store pay me a larger cut than sales through other print bookstores, even though I don’t ever touch the books. You’ll pay shipping charges, however, so anything bought there is a pure Lucas Charity Purchase. Some folks buy under those terms, though, and I appreciate them, ...

The One Lone Audiobook now exclusive on my store

I started work on the Savaged by Systemd audiobook in the summer of 2019, thinking it was short enough to be affordable, long enough to be a legit audiobook, and the right length to listen to on a commute. As an SbS audiobook is completely ridiculous, I planned to release it on 1 April 2020. I had no idea that commuting would no longer be a thing in 2020. Ah, well. I uploaded it to the various stores and forgot about it.

The audiobook was available in every store I could reach, but the biggest r...

Novel, Story Collection, and In-Print Nonfiction Index Pages

The problem with having written this many books is providing a catalog of them. One day I might do a print catalog just for giggles, but not today.

I have, however, built index pages. You can find all of my novels and story collections at https://mwl.io/fiction. My in-print nonfiction books are all listed at https://mwl.io/nonfiction. Each entry links to the breakout page containing the book.

Been meaning to do this for a while, but Copious Free Time(tm) and all that.

I believe I’m supposed to e...

The orc-leather-cased Orcibuses have arrived!

Remember last year’s Prohibition Orcs Kickstarter? One of the rewards was the omnibus cased in “authentic” orc-hide leather.

Turns out one orc has enough hide for thirty-five book cases. Out of decency, I’m keeping the one with the unfortunately placed nipples. Alan at Studio 42 Designs has the prototype. He’s signed each case, and I will sign the title pages.

Each is uniquely textured, carved, and dyed, highlighting the many scars earned by a long-lived orc. I am absolutely delighted at how t...

“OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems” print leaking out

Yesterday, I wrote a big tough screed about how I would push the printer to approve the OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems print. After the horrid delay with the Orcibus, I was ready to chew steel and spit nails. Printer approval isn’t hard: a human eyeballs it and says “yeah, that’ll print,” and hits the button.

I hit “publish” and discovered that the printer had already approved it.

I have ordered all the preorders, print sponsors, and Patronizer copies. I’ve also paid the extra dollar per copy so t...

“OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems” Print Status

I got the print proofs of OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems yesterday, and they came out lovely.

I’ve gone through them and fixed some less-than-optimal layout decisions. You never know what a print book will look like until you hold it in your hands. Several folks read the ebook already and sent some corrections that I, the tech editors, and the copyeditor missed, so I fixed them. The ebook has been updated to match. The printer now has the print files.

So, when will the print book be in stores?

Th...

2022 Income Sources

Here’s where my money came from in 2022. (For those seeing these for the first time, I did similar posts in 2019, 2020, and 2021.)

I’m a writer. My income comes from writing books and making them available. I publish both independently and through publishers. I don’t consult. I don’t seek out speaking fees. I desire to make my living as an author, creating and licensing intellectual property. I make my books available in every channel that offers reasonable terms.

How did 2022 look?

First off, m...

The Terminal Brag Shelf

An author’s brag shelf is where they keep one copy of every edition of everything they’ve published. The problem with a practicing writer’s brag shelf is that it needs more and more space. I mean, look at this from 2017.

That’s respectable, I think. Many authors built their careers around that many books. Fast forward three years, though, and it doesn’t look so tidy.

Fine. I’ll recycle an old bookcase for my brag shelf. As of November, it looked like this.

As they say on social media: oh no.

...

Why “OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems” is not in Amazon’s Kindle store

I expect folks to ask this, so here’s a pre-emptive blog post.

You can get OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems for Kindle direct from me at Tilted Windmill Press or at Gumroad. You can get a Kindle-friendly ebook from any number of other retailers, but while they’re all supposed to be DRM-free I can’t advise on prying the file out of another vendor’s ecosystem. The one place you cannot buy OMF for Kindle is Amazon’s Kindle bookstore.

TLDR: Amazon pays roughly 70% of retail price for books priced up to ...

“OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems” ebook leaking out

I had wanted the ebook before Christmas, but before New Years’ Day isn’t terrible.

The ebook of OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems went to sponsors, Patronizers, and pre-order folks yesterday. It’s in my online bookstore today, and will appear elsewhere through the weekend as I upload to all the stores and all the databases churn.

Well, almost all the stores. The DRM-free ebooks sold in any store can be loaded onto a Kindle, but the book won’t be in Amazon’s Kindle store. I’ll do a blog post dedicated...