Espresso Book Machine

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If you haven’t seen an in-store book printing machine in action, you’re in “luck.” I ordered a book from the Espresso Book Machine at the UW Bookstore in Seattle and took a really mediocre video of the process. Watch it here.

Handy with a camera, ain’t I?

The whole thing took about seven minutes, so I don’t think we’re at the place yet where book stores stocked their shelves with cover flats readers can carry to the register/print station. Not without 20 more machines running full time. And that doesn’t include the 15 minutes it needed to warm up the glue before the process could even start.

Also, there had to be a store employee operating the machines terminal for almost the whole time; I’ve done my best to edit her out, per her request.

Honestly, the most difficult part of the whole thing was taking my laptop out of the store to find a wifi signal, searching the specialized web site for the book I wanted to buy, and copying down the info I needed to take back into the store. Plus, the books were kinda spendy.

It’s early days yet.

I shot this over a year ago (Procrastinate? Me?) but ask questions if you have them. I’ll answer as best I can.

What it takes

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Check out this blog post by a guy who just got his first book deal. There’s so much in there that he did right that any aspiring author could revisit it several times over the months and learn something new from it.

Randomness for 3/6

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1) A smart way to promote science education. Also.

2) At no point does this stop being awesome: Sheen Family Circus.

3) Frank Herbert writes a children’s book: Goodnight Dune

4) Baby laughs at ripping paper. Video. Watching this is good for your soul.

5) Children read to dogs.

6) Please do not submit my name here.

7) Those amazing personal stories you hear on radio call-in shows? They might be actors reading a script.

In other news

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When I revise, I accomplish a word count that other writers would do when writing a first draft.

F2F

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Is this also an argument for authors to make public appearances?

(Unless they’re assholes.)

Reviews, part 25

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1) Josh Albritton (@CapnIndigo on Twitter) liked the first book a little: “Holy shit that was an amazing wild ride! Can’t wait to read the rest!”

2) On his “lackluster blog,” Gary Furash really liked Child of Fire: “… another urban dark fantasy novel and, surprisingly, even darker and more noir than [Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim].”

3) On Twitter, Thadeous Cooper says he tore through Child of Fire. “Great book, needs more long term characters though.”

4) On Strange Horizons, William Mingin has many, many, (many) criticisms of Game of Cages, but ultimately calls it compelling, stating: “Besides the pull of sheer event, story, or vicarious identification with risk and triumph, there’s an ineffable quality of style in page-turners, a quality of compulsiveness that some writers evoke—unpredictable, hard to pin down, and unfairly distributed. Anyone experienced in reading the fiction of event knows there’s “good stuff” and not so good, even if the difference between the two isn’t always easy to pinpoint. Connolly writes the good stuff.” That’s sort of good, I guess. Anyway, I knew the big cast of characters would be difficult for a lot of readers. I learn and move on.

5) There have been several kind words from comments in my last thread on Charles Stross’s blog. No quote, but there are quite a few nice ones. See?

6) On Twitter, @timgray101 (aka Tim Gray) liked it enough to read more: “CoF goes from location to location uncovering stuff and having action/peril scenes. 80s action paperback/Call of Cthulhu scenario/car chase.”

7) Noel Rappin put both Child of Fire and Game of Cages on his “Best of the rest, 2010” list: “The first book, I think, works very well. It’s creepy — a town’s children are dying one by one, and as they do, everybody forgets they ever existed. I get kind of creeped out just typing that.” He’s less fond of book two (although it still makes the list) and of Ray’s nicknames for characters whose names he doesn’t know.

Best sf/f novel of the decade?

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Here’s the thing: I like John Scalzi. I’ve never met the guy, but he comes across very well don’t you think? He seems smart and reasonable and I’m pretty sure the wife and child he loves are actually real people that he’s genuinely nice to.

What’s more, I’m grateful to him. The Big Idea essays he let me post on his blog were invaluable. Quite a few people who contacted me after they read my books said they’d discovered them through his site.

So, he’s a nicer guy than I am, he works harder, and he does more good for all of humanity than I do. These are things I believe to be true.

But is Old Man’s War the best sf/f novel of the decade? Um, no. It’s a good book, absolutely. It’s a fun and accessible book, with terrific characters. But the best?

I know, I know. It’s a Tor.com poll and, while I don’t for a second believe the Tor.com folks stuffed the ballet for one of their own, there’s almost certainly an extra helping of Tor readers there.

But come on.

(For the record, CoF got 2 votes, which is 3 more than I expected. Thank you, two crazy voters. Me, I voted for Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.)

The agency model

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So, Random House has switched over to agency pricing for its ebooks. I can’t say I’m surprised but I am sorry to see that the price of my ebooks has been raised to the price of the physical books.

I understand why RH is doing this, but I think it’s too bad. It’s also not something I have any control over; if I’d knows this was coming, I’d have suggested folks buy ahead of the price change. Sorry, guys.

Hit a roadblock on the new project

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It was unexpected, but unavoidable. I’m trying to figure out how to fix it within pre-established parameters, and I think I just about have it handled.

It’s funny, though. I used tear my hair out over this stuff, but today it looks to me like a pleasant little puzzle (more fun than the Minecraft obstacle course my son designed for me, at least) and I know it’ll be stronger for being fixed.

Anyway, I put up a couple of posts over the weekend. I suspect you guys saw my joke post about Pat Rothfuss (I’m just trying to help the guy get his name out there), but I’m surprised no one wanted to talk about the super-low pricing on ebook backlist titles–prices set by a publisher, not an author who’ve had their rights reverted.

I think it’s potentially a great thing for midlist authors and may cement price windowing as a professional publishing business model. It could also hit very hard against indie authors who have been hoovering up all the ultra-low priced impulse-buy ebook sales.

If you are writing a series, would you ask your publisher to release an ebook of book one for $0.99 to help promote book four?

Quick question

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What channel is the Puppy Oscars on? I can’t seem to find it.