MCM's Blog, page 56
July 6, 2009
Big News Monday
Today I'm going to announce two things that some of you already know, and I fully expect to receive a healthy amount of hate mail about. Also, a minor update on the Deathmatch.
TorrentBoy: Pirates Attack!
Starting tomorrow, 1889 Books will start serializing TorrentBoy: Pirates Attack!, with one new chapter every Tuesday for 18 weeks. The big news is that "Pirates Attack" was not written by me. It's by a very cool guy named Chris Keyes.
When I was finding beta testers for PA, I pinged a few hardc
July 2, 2009
Book Premise Deathmatch
Next week, things will be getting very exciting and busy around here, so I want to give this as much time to breathe its own air as I can. This is what I like to call the Book Premise Deathmatch.
Usually, I do this process in my head, but my psychiatrist tells me it's not healthy to talk to myself so much. Quiet, you, I'm talking! Where was I?
Ah, yes. The Deathmatch. Right now, I have three ideas competing for my Friday timeslot*. These are going to be as insanely Social Media-ey as I can m
Pig and the Box: 6 Month Review
Is it that time already? The Pig and the Box version 2 has been out for half a year now. In that time, I've released four other books (Poke of the Titans, TorrentBoy: Zombie World!, Fission Chips and Percy's Perch), and tried a variety of techniques for creating a better book industry. Here's what I know:
Readership
When I last served up results, the book had been downloaded about 300,000 times in 30 days. In the months since, my prediction of 100 downloads a day has been reasonably correct: 1
A Q&A With Myself
I get a truly absurd amount of mail, and some of it isn't spam. Some of the questions I get asked, I get asked a lot. Frequently, you might say. And given the lack of an internet convention for dealing with questions which are asked frequently, I will provide you with this, a Q&A with myself, paraphrasing the questions which have been asked. Frequently.
What came first, books or TV?
Broadly? I think books. For me specifically, it's a bit murkier. I wrote The Pig and the Box when I was alrea
10 Inspirational Quotes by Very Dead People
- General Quintus Tiberius (105-135); died falling off the Alpine Pass when distracted by a meteor shower
"Wise men try everything once. Fear is no excuse for ignorance."
- Xi Tai Lao (803-844); died discovering gunpowder
"Remember the little things. A brilliant sunrise fills me like no bread ever could."
- Saint Lucia of Carvanne (942-964); starved to death
"When life turns dark, trust in your fellow man; they alone hold the keys to pe
June 30, 2009
On Simulated Freedom
All non-physical goods are going to be free, whether you like it or not.
Giving things away is a fundamental requirement of business in this day and age, just like Power Point decks and Twittering in meetings (don't try and deny it). Things are free for a variety of reasons that you could argue about till the cows come home, but still not disprove. This isn't about that. This is about how you make something free.
Mark Cuban pointed out an astonishingly smart distinction: there is a difference b
Disassembling the World (4)
At the end of July, 1889 Books will be releasing The Vector, a science fiction novel about people trying to survive a slow apocalypse. When we start the book, things have already been deteriorating for some time, and no time is wasted explaining why. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to writing a series of background articles here that fill in the back story. You don't need to read these to understand the book, but if you're like me, you'll probably want to know.
June 29, 2009
Random Monday Thoughts
Today is Monday, which means it's time for a brain dump. Prepare yourselves…
PDFs Suck
One of the chief benefits of using the Reader system is that I can actually track how people read things. When I was using PDFs as my sole source of readage, people would come by, snatch the file (sometimes without even seeing 1889.ca) and read it on their own time. While I really appreciate how convenient that is for some people, it does give me somewhat skewed statistics. For one, I don't think those direc
June 26, 2009
Announcement Day (June 2009)
It’s a busy day today boys and girls! I have not one, not two, but THREE big launches, all at once! ”WTF?” you say. ”That’s insane!” Well yes, yes it is. Thanks for noticing.
Percy’s Perch
[image error]Book number 5 (of a possible 12) is called Percy’s Perch, and it’s about a cute little gargoyle who’s scared of heights. This, of course, makes his life pretty difficult. He meets up with a boy named Iain who’s dealing with a schoolyard bully, and they work together to conquer their fears. One baby step
June 23, 2009
Disassembling the World (3)
At the end of July, 1889 Books will be releasing The Vector, a science fiction novel about people trying to survive a slow apocalypse. When we start the book, things have already been deteriorating for some time, and no time is wasted explaining why. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to writing a series of background articles here that fill in the back story. You don’t need to read these to understand the book, but if you’re like me, you’ll probably want to know.
