Post Script 1: On Publication
Dear readers,
Yes, I am negotiating the fate of Simon of Space with an actual publisher. If everything proceeds the way we all hope, the manuscript will receive the attention of a professional editor to help me polish up the rough spots and bang out the worst dents. The book will then be re-released with broader distribution and some attempts at real marketing.
A further consequence of the agreement would be that existing versions of the novel would cease to be available.
Thus, for those of you who planned to buy a copy of the current printed edition but have not yet done so, don't procrastinate too long. It may disappear without warning, along with this weblog's archives.
Such is the way the winds of commerce blow.
A big thank you goes out to everyone who troubled to purchase signed copies of the first edition of Simon of Space. Your books are being printed now. Unfortunately, no further orders for signed copies can be accepted at this time as the volume has become unmanageable and I don't have a secretary.
Some Simon of Space stuff is now available through Cafe Press, including shirts, mugs, and a poster. I hope to offer other illustrations as posters in the future...as soon as I get some time to draw I'd love to render a version of the Neago, for instance. But for now it's just the familiar profile of Jeremiah and the slogan of Fellcorp Mercy. Send me your design requests -- all suggestions will be considered.
Announcements relating to the release of the second edition will be posted here on this weblog, along with bits of new Simon of Space-universe content exclusive to the Internet. Stay tuned.
Love,
Cheeseburger Brown
posted by Simon of Space at 18:58
48 Comments:
Yay!! First post! Anyway, I'm glad that I ordered my copy of the signed edition right away. Hope the "real" print version works out. Good luck!
Dang. I hope it doesn't disappear before I have the funds to actually buy one; of course since autographs are temporarily out of stock, I'd have to wait anyway.
So can we buy a book when able and send it (postage and $5 paid, of course) to be signed at some future date?
Sheik,
Sure. Buy a book, send it round. I sign whatever's put in front of me.
Love,
CheeseburgerBrown
ack I wish I could get my copy bought now! I have to wait until all outstanding bills are paid however. BUT! Best of luck Cheeseburger, the book deal is fantastic. May you become comfortable enough off the royalties to write more!
CBB: Where do you want us to put requests for artwork? your email is likely full, so i fear all my ideas for images i'd like to take out of your head (and put up on my wall) would simply get lost.
i sure am glad i already got my signed copy. maybe i should get a second one when able, so when it's worth millions i'll still have one lying around.
TRH
word veri: svfdjpfa. save food, jap fair. apparently the good people of japan are having a pot-luck and we need to bring something, so we'll save up over a while.
Simon of Space: Epilogue
Brought to you through the wonders of Secret Acoustics:
The token back to Metra
Fell between the grate
And we're just watching it sinking
The fare went up to 50 million hours
And we can never go home again
The executive's been drinking lighter fluid
And claims he killed our brother
Our feet start running at a furious pace
But we can't get away
wvf: tmbgoe - Terron Might Be Good Opines Edmund
CBB, that is excellent news!!!!!!
Although I'll be sad when the story is removed from the blog, I'm glad I've been on board since the first post...and I'll be looking forward to the second edition!
I missed out on the signed version? Shite!
Oh well, when CBB makes it, I'll get him to sign it then.
Sure. Buy a book, send it round. I sign whatever's put in front of me
Or I could just buy a copy of Lulu and do that. Hmm.
I don't know how much you care that the online version continue to be available, but just in case you are, there's a good precedent set. Practical Common Lisp was posted online throughout the period while the author was writing it, and he managed to negotiate with the publisher to keep the entire book online even after the dead-tree version was completed and shipping.
The author had to take a cut in royalties on the initial run of the book in order to get the publisher to accept it, but his opinion was that having the book online would help sales enough to make up the difference. I believe that this would be even more true with a work of fiction than with a technical book, since I personally find fiction much less pleasant to read on o computer screen. I don't know what your opinion is, and if you're happy with taking down the online version then please ignore me. But if you hold the same opinion, then perhaps you'll find this information helpful.
And while I'm posting, let me just say that you did a fantastic job on SoS and I look forward to the "official" dead-tree version.
I agree completely with anonymous. I realize that, as a fledgeling author, you may not have much bargaining power; but there is a lot of evidence that the marketing power of a strong web presence can be extremely positive in generating sales. SoS is an excellent case in point: how many of us would have bothered to buy SoS if we couldn't read it online first? Certainly many of us will buy both the self-published as well as the edited/published version; probably many more than won't buy either just because they read the blog, (if only out of curiosity or because we have, literally, become your "fans"!)
That said, I certainly understand that the publisher will want to cut off the Lulu publication; but the blog, especially since it's unedited and has the user comments, could be exploited by a more progressive publisher to its maximum potential.
There's a really good article about this and the future of publishing on
The Book Standard .
Cheers,
Jim
I wondered aloud to my wife whether the publishing company would even take on the project since it already had been "published" on lulu. But, since it remained your property on lulu, I guess you can sell it to whomever you wish. Good news there.
Yes, we will be sad to see the blog go. Can someone take the time to somehow archive the blog and the comments? Or at least the comments, if the text itself is protected. Maybe make a note of which chapter each group of comments followed?
It would be a shame to see a community's history vaporized at the signing of a contract. Plus, I haven't bookmarked everybody's blog yet so I can keep in touch if I want to (hey, I just moved and haven't any "live" friends yet).
I can try to spend some time on this at some point, but not right now.
Glad I have a signed copy on the way! Not glad I didn't have the dough for two.
Mark,
Good thinking. I imagine when the time comes I will remove the content of each post, but not the commentary or the title. How does that strike you?
Love,
CheeseburgerBrown
CBB - That definitely satisfies, if you can do it. It would be a big source of spoilers for anybody reading the book, but I'm sure you can post some kind of warning to that effect.
So, you going to go by Cheeseburger Brown, or your given name?
This is the first time I've been "in" on something before it's the "in" thing. I'm sure many SoS readers would say the same. Now, if SoS were just an IPO, and one's number of comments counted as his/her number of shares, some of use would become independently wealthy.
Because, your given name sounds very author-ish.
I think that's a great idea, CBB -- remove the content if you have to, but keep the titles and the comments. That way we can still read our dead-tree editions, and still browse through what everyone had to say once each chapter was published.
(Aw, let's face it...none of us wants to see our words completely disappear after we've spent so much time and thought on our comments!)
i used to come here every day to see if there were any new episodes, and when there weren't i would catch up on comments from previous eps. now i come here for the comments. you should set up a discussion board or forum on your website, cbb, where we could discuss your various works. i know that i am working my way throught them
by the way, i decided of my own accord that a list here of art ideas would likely garner more of your attention than an email, so here's a list. everybody else, feel free to add.
Cast Shot. everybody (Simon, Glory/Vera, Jeremiah, Pish, Duncan, Fartles, Greskin, Ting, Oliver, Pemma, Jia, Olorio, Blighton, everybody) standing for the "camera"
close-up of simon. and personally, i'd like to see the nightmare cannon perched on his shoulder, that'd be good.
one of the nightmare cannon itself
shots from the book:
Simon and Jeremiah in front of the really big pretend nightmare cannon.
The Navy coming in (and the Neago crashing)
The Neago in Orbit of Maja
Simon, Jeremiah, Pish and Fartles stuck between a flamingo and a tree
Captain Ting on the bridge of the Neago, looking military and regal and all that.
Split screen shot: one side is Amalasthuna, Greskin leaning against a cab, the other side is Greskin on Pegasi Secundae (in the white suit, not the dilly suit) looking lawyerish
The Citadel of the Recovery, looking ominous
Our Intrepid Heroes (Simon, Glory/Vera, Jeremiah, Pish) in the lobby of Fellcorp
it's kind of a long list, but of course i don't expect you to make...well, any of them! just ideas.
TRH
wordveri: nsjamddu. nos jammed du. umm...that's three different languages.
Off the top images for art work:
Ones that were either
a) big impressions for Simon
* Something from Simon’s first views of space as he ascended to, or looked out from the Castle Misne
* View of Maja; views from space port, view from train
* Annapurna; march of ants
b) big impressions for me
* all of the above
* Callicrates
* The images of the nightmare cannon – the dreams, the sculpture, the real thing (the juxtaposition of the real NC – innocent bird – to the nightmarish image that horrifies Simon)
c) things I wonder, ‘does CBB see them as I do?’
* any characters, particularly: the stages of Jeremiah – with Duncan, post monkey change, as executive; the grown up Pish; Crushed Head Faeda
* Duncan’s home and the statue garden
* The scene within Blighton’s home – the party or Simon and Blighton viewing the universe in the library
* Image of the skies above Metra filled with the Navy – with our hero as TV and as Simon
* Minatour
I’m sure others can suggest so much more.
Patronly yours,
DoD
All great authors have four names.
:p
*has four*
also i hate spamming bot blog commentors! Every comment on my blogs lately has been a spam one. Had to put up word verification on all three.
CBB:
Huge congrats on your book deal Matt. I wish you the best of all possible luck. Glad I ordered my signed copies in Saturday :) .
While yer waiting around with all your free time now (hehe, right) checkout Roger Zelazny's "Lord of Light". He -- like yourself -- is one of the few authors that don't insult the readers intelligence & can paint a wide, colorful picture with minimal prose.
Thanks for everything. I look forward to your next book.
--
argan0n
Great art ideas, everybody. Maybe someone already mentioned it way back, but when I first started reading SoS, wasn't there a line "Hello, my name is Simon... or so they tell me." Am I imagining this? I don't think so, because it reminded me of that sketch on Saturday Night Live, where Mike Meyers plays a little boy in the bathtub, who opens with "Hello, my name is Simon, and I like to do drawrings."
Speaking of "drawrings," what kind of sparrow will the nightmare cannon be? Here's the white-crowned sparrow.
Venerable CBB,
Congrats on the publishing possibility. Your work should be available to a much wider audience. I'll be paying attention.
Love the merch. One question, though: any chances for getting both designs on girly Ts? The boxy kind is such an unflattering fit, and I already have so much sewing to do at work....
xoxo - T.
Mark:First thing I did was save every page off the table of contents. 'save link as...'
It's interesting to look at the file sizes, the two biggest are 'I Am' and 'Jeremiah's Secret'. The latter filled with comments to the effect of "wow executive. OMG math, something wicked!!!!!11"
Number the files as you save them, use two digit numbers from the beginning (01,02,03) so everything will line up.
Check your filesizes, some of them showed up as 1kb, and had to be re-downloaded.
And yes, it was there. It just didn't make it into the graphical title.
CBB:
I was just thinking that I'd like a place to discuss SOS that wasn't linked to one of the chapters. If you do have to take the content offline, the blog would be a good place to host various discussions and news. I was about to post to 'I Am' "So now that we've seen the whole story, what's the best SOS line of all?"
I'm sure between you and the readership, there is plenty of room for discussion along the lines of 'The Philosophy of Simon of Space 101'.
I second anonymous's comment on keeping it online. Come payday, I'll be making a donation towards keeping as much as possible as free as possible. (Either your present or future works, honor the donation as you wish)
You've got the following and the talent to make the street performer protocol work. It would work especially well with a serial work. I'm sure you could have raised quite a bounty for some of the SOS chapters.
I'm a sucker for the public domain, but I'd pay for Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- NoDerivs too.
If SOS goes offline, will it be offline forever, or just while it is 'in print'?
At least make sure you can do what you want with it later on.
Another thought if it must go, take off the content, and leave the comments, but disallow future comments.
Then make 45 new entries with the chapter titles, just for people who read the dead tree version. (actually, this might be a good idea either way, especially since the dead tree version will be edited, comments might not make sense.)
Dear all,
Answers (in no particular order):
This book will be credited to "Cheeseburger Brown" because pulp scifi from the dawn of a writer's career should always be put out under a quirky pseudonym, in my opinion.
The subhead of the blog did indeed read "Hello my name is Simon. Or so they tell me," until I replaced it with a graphical banner. The subhead reappears on the rear-cover of the Lulu edition of the book.
It weakly references the same source as Mike Myers -- a British children's show from the mid-seventies called "Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings" (the version of the show that airs now is a co-production between Britain and Canada, and not nearly as charming). Simon would leave his house each morning and play hookey, climbing over a wooden fence into a disused lot where he would experience vivid hallucinations that his chalk drawings could talk and play. The theme song, which every Canadian of approximately my age (30) knows, runs like so:
Well you know my name is Simon /
and the things I draw come true.
Oh the pictures take me take me over /
The wall and ladder with you.
Full theme: http://members.tripod.com/Tiny_Dancer/simoninlandofchalkdrawings.mp3
No, I have no objection to porting the T-shirt design available over at Cafe Press for a girly-T version. I'll try to do that today -- won't take long. Any preferred style?
Yes, the actual prose content of this blog will be disappearing, as will the option to purchase the Lulu edition. I think you have about three days left, if you wanted to download or buy something. An on-line version of the book will likely re-appear on the web sometime in 2008.
I plan to look into discussion board software. Any suggestions?
Love,
CheeseburgerBrown
Many thanks for addressing the girly T. Can it be the Jr. Baby Doll T-Shirt, please?
Nice to know that you did have "Simon" in mind, if tangentially. The song is still stuck in my head from my public-television-youth down in Virginia; I'm turning 32 shortly.... That and "Schoolhouse Rock" ("Interplanet Janet"!) are part of the soundtrack of my early years.
Not to post old news or anything, but I am reading back over my novel and found a line that rang a bell with Simon's commentary on clouds. My lines are from the thoughts of a character whose life has become very unpredictable:
"The wind, hard enough to make her lean against it, had moved a dark cloud bank overhead. She looked up at the floating gray mass, somehow comforted by it. It was made of clouds she had seen many times in her life, and she knew exactly what they would bring."
Anyway, just knew there was a reason the Clouds part of Simon's thoughts rang true with me.
Fortunately my SoS addiction is still in high gear and I periodically check the site and comments for any updates, otherwise I would have missed out on my chance to purchase the prose copy from lulu (as I did with the signed copies =insert sad face here=). Now I get to make trips to the post office each day for the next few weeks eagerly anticipating the arrival of my very own copy of Simon's diary all the while thinking that Today Could Be The Day.
CBB - I have thoroughly enjoyed the ride as well as the reader community that sprung up around your creation and added a richness to the experience that I have yet to find anywhere else. As a reader from the beginning, SoS crack has made me an addict to not only Simon but to your work in general and I will look forward to your future efforts relating to Simon or some other direction entirely.
My $0.02:
- I can't wait to see the art work (as time/life permits of course)
- I love the idea (thanks Indrax) for a independent discussion board (as I am already collecting my favorite SoS lines)
Veri: ztzmkt - Zitz Market: a place where adolescent teen faces meet to take part in acne commerce.
Someone also asked earlier if you could put a "hoodie" sweatshirt up on CafePress, too...I second that thought, if you have a moment to do that....
CBB,
I'm a regular visitor and poster at Guy Gavriel Kay's authorised site, Brightweavings, and the Webmistress there (Deborah) swears by the moderated forum software she uses, Discusware.
Customizable and... drum roll...
FREE
Of course there's the 'PRO' version that you get to pay for too.
"Sure. Buy a book, send it round. I sign whatever's put in front of me."
Hmmm....a blank cheque?
Is our community dying? I hope not. I'm hoping that after folks start getting their lulu's, we can fire it back up. Then of course, CBB will keep us updated on the progress of the publication.
CBB - If you expect the polished/published version to be online in 2008, then when the heck are they actually going to publish the book? I guess 2008 is a date everyone decided would be good to release it online again to drum up interest for the sequel/prequel? If not, then that would have been a good reason, from a marketing standpoint.
So, do you know yet when we'll be able to dash into (insert favorite book store here) and grab it? Or is it far too early (fart too early?) to know? Sorry for that last one. It's late.
Updates:
On Cafe Press apparel: hoodie? Okay, will do.
On Signing Blank Cheques: sure. I hope you like them bouncy.
On Additional Art: Time willing.
On Discussion Board Soft: Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into it.
On Lulu: Lulu's lack of support annoys me. After assuring me what everything was cool with my order for days, they've now realized there was a problem holding up everything and have fixed it. Grrr! My question is: did the first three bozos who looked at my case have brains made of soft, unpasteurized cheese? Oy!
Love,
CheeseburgerBrown
Phy, the house sparrow would be good, I agree. Before I became somewhat of a birdwatcher (and subsequently not much of one), my wife and I called these "Wal-Mart parking lot birds," because that's where we always saw them, scrounging for a piece of hamburger bun or some other morsel dropped (and of course never retrieved) by some American consumer. Another reason we called it that back then was that we lived in Bentonville, world headquarters for Wal-Mart, and there was no other place to shop. Nice to be in a metro area where there is choice.
I have now purchased the dead-tree version.
I predict that SoS will become a cult classic (or, who knows, a literary classic!) and that owning the first publication of the book will be, in fifty years, the equivalent of owning untorn tickets to Woodstock I.
Awesome, awesome, awesome.
klwbkpj- kill web cap, J- a secret message brought down by aliens to tell you not to put a cap on the comments because Jennifer still needs to comment. ;)
mmmmmmmmmm........ soft, unpasteurized cheese
the hoodie looks nice, the shirt you have up appears to be a girls hoodie. can we get one that isn't specially cut for a female bust, or at least clarification on this matter? many thanks.
TRH
word veri: cfous. a toddler eats crab. "It's Sea-foos!" as in sea-food.
This is a tenuous connection, but here goes.
Anybody going to see Serenity this weekend?
Hey, it's sci-fi. It's topical here.
Mark
CBB,
I'm broke until the 6th, but i really want a first edition...any chance you could put 2 aside, and i'll buy em off ya' after i have some money?
Serenity - 10:05 tonight!
:D can't wait can't wait!
IP:
I thought about asking for that as well, but it would involve CBB *buying* two twenty-dollar books from Lulu and waiting to be reimbursed.
Meantime I'm hoping somebody buys another EasyListBox license really soon so I can get my copy before doomsday...
lilaena - Going to see Serenity tonight with the wife! I've only watched five episodes of "FireFly," on DVD, but I just can't wait to see the film. Then, my wife will want to see the episodes with me (all part of my evil plan - she wasn't interested in Star Trek TNG until she came to love Data).
Re: Serenity
I've never seen "Firefly" so I'll probably take a pass on the movie until I've had a chance to catch up. I'm sure they'll include lots of exposition to help our newbies like myself, but I'd rather see it prestocked with series knowledge.
I'm a bit slow on the uptake with things like that -- I tend to hear about new TV shows only when everybody and their kid brother had the DVD. I only just now caught on to the new "Doctor Who", for instance. ("I take your atoms, and I divide them!")
My wife and I are TV conservatives. We watch "M*A*S*H" and "Futurama." Other than that we're movie people.
We haven't seen "The Office" or "Six Feet Under" or "The Sopranos" or the new "Battlestar Galactica", or whatever it is people are mad about these days.
I've seen half an episode of "Seinfeld." Oh, and we watched some of that "American Idol" thingy a year or so ago.
Wait -- there is one new show we watch, but it's a Canadian show so it probably means nothing to most of you...still, "Corner Gas" with Brent Butt is wicked funny. It's a sit-com that takes place in Saskatchewan.
On the other hand, I did enjoy "Doctor Who" once it was foisted upon me...so, anybody want to hook me up with some "Firefly" torrents?
Love,
CheeseburgerBrown
On Late Purchases:
I can make no promises. But, in the event that some people who have placed orders fail to pay, their books will go up for sale to whoever wants them.
There are currently 14 books that have been ordered which have not been paid for.
Love,
CheeseburgerBrown
CBB (or all) - Know what you mean about not being a watcher of much TV. I didn't know about Firefly until about a month ago. Didn't even start watching Star Trek: TNG until about the fifth season, when a guy at work gave me mass quantities of VHS recordings of past seasons, sans commercials.
On a similar note (nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say no more), can you get me your mailing/shipping address?
Wow, your lack of Seinfeld sounds funny to this American. I haven't laughed that hard at TV since it went off the air.
I'm reading Ringworld by Larry Niven. Pretty good stuff. So far, almost as engaging as SoS.
#1. My postal address:
http://storyzoo.com/storyzoo/contact_storyzoo.html
#2. The discussion board is now open:
http://mfdh.ca/oubliette
Love,
CheeseburgerBrown
CBB -
I don't know the availability of BBC America shows on its Canadian counterpart, but if you have the means to watch the BBC version of The Office you should at all costs. This show is brilliant in the way it mocks all things business world. The only thing that surpasses the pain is the humor. And like all Americanized versions of British shows, the NBC the office is spelled in lower case by me for a reason. Oh so pale in comparison.
DoD
Alright, awesome, i'll check back on the 6th, if the unpaied copies are still available (Assuming they don't fall under the same category as first edition in general, namely, "unavailabe forever"), i will GLADLY take two...then i can proudly own a first edition of a printed text that i really enjoy.
Wow, nobody posts here anymore.
Just got back from vacation, I have my Lulu made SOS in hand.. life is good.
What's in the works for the future CBB?
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