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“I’ve Been Published!” A Brag Thread.
I know there are quite a few published authors here on Ricochet and I thought it would be fun to give people a chance to enlighten their fellow Ricochetti on articles they have published. So I am creating this as a brag thread where you can post book titles, links to Amazon author pages, or the names of scholarly articles you have had published.
Go ahead brag a little…
Published in General
My first book, “Basics of Model Rocketry,” was published in 1981 and I still get asked to autograph copies. I went on to write eight more books about model cars and airplanes, long out of print. I’m not sorry I did it but it was way too much effort for the return.
Narrating audiobooks, on the other hand, is fun. I can generally crank out one a month, the Audible royalty structure is better than McGraw-Hill ever gave me, and I get to make a creative contribution to someone else’s work if I do it right. My 32nd narration is in QC on Audible now and will be available as soon as they get the cover art straightened out. I’ve got two more chapters to record and a couple weeks of editing on #33, and last week I signed on to do #34. I seem to be doing much better as a narrator than I ever did as a writer.
Yeah, that’s part of it. At the time, the biggest-selling pocket game like that was Ogre, which had sold about 80,000 copies, total. So I got a certain amount up front, a certain amount on release date, and (we honestly laughed about this part), another check when it sold 150,000 copies.
I got the third check seven months after release.
Total sales of Car Wars? Over a million copies sold, plus the spinoffs. merch, and magazine sales. And the sixth edition is coming pretty soon. Sheesh. At least I get free copies of each new product.
Oh, I miss those old wargames. Battle of the Bulge and Blitzkreig and Kreigspiel were my entree into Dungeons and Dragons. Steve Jackson games were a favorite too.
I’ve been looking for online versions, but nothing holds up. World of Tanks just doesn’t hold a candle.
Loved Car Wars. I might have the cardboard sleeve version and one of the expansions still lying around.
Me too. I had a turreted van that you did not want to mess with. Great game.
Oh, yeah. That counts for a lot. I used to read all of those regularly.
And I bought one of those early copies of Car Wars, so I guess we’re even. :-)
I played that, way back when. That, Ogre, and Illuminati. Illuminati was a favorite game back when my gaming group was still geographically coherent.
Steve was starting work on Illuminati while we were finishing Car Wars.
There were a lot of talented people in that crowd back then.
The same year we were working on Car Wars, a guy in the next apartment complex over from me was making a game for the Apple II. His name was Richard Garriott, and the game was called Ultima. I ended up as a character in that one, along with Steve and a number of other folks from the Society for Creative Anachronism. Richard made a completely ridiculous amount of money in computer games, as it turned out.
Aaron Allston was also at SJG – he went on to write a lot of the Star Wars novels, as well as his own works, and his impact on boardgaming and roleplaying games was pretty massive.
Don’t let it be forgot
That once there was a spot
For one brief shining moment that
Was known as Camelot.
Seawriter
I have a published children’s book called “Have You Ever Seen a Bird Skip?” I wrote it for several reasons. It is about a little bird who is afraid to fly (I’m not fond of flying…and after 9/11, many felt the same way), and he is also made fun of by his friends. I wanted to tell a story about what he decides to do when he encounters a type of bullying and embarrassment, which so many kids encounter today. Third, I actually saw a bird skip. No I didn’t drink too much wine. He was down off the curb in a puddle. Then he just hopped back up and skipped on down the sidewalk. It was the funniest thing so I made a mental note. The story is in rhyme. The book also includes a free audio download. The voice is mine and I created all the sound effects myself. The guitar intro is my husband and he helped me mix it to meet the publisher requirements. They had someone reading it for me, and she was awful – even burped!
You can get a copy (it’s cheap) for your little friends and family – good for ages 3-9 directly from me – the publisher I just learned is going out of business!! While I investigate their process, I do have copies. If you would like one, message me with your Qty. name and address. They are $9.00 plus $2.00 postage.
I saw this thread, but despite having co-written a book, decided I wouldn’t add anything. However, today, and most appropriately, April Fool’s Day, I received my first royalty check. My wife and I could have spent the check celebrating, but the amount would have only covered the appetizer.
My co-author put up the money for self-publishing and for promotion packages. The costs have run into the tens of thousands of dollars. The book is good—the few independent reviews have all been positive—but we will never recoup the costs unless the Oprah picks it for a book of the month or we sell it to Hollywood.
So, what have we learned fellow scribblers? Writing is hard, but marketing is harder. Think about the financial aspect of the business before jumping into self-publishing and make a conscious decision about how much money you are willing to risk. Yes, it’s great to have a published book with your name on the cover, but beyond the year, or two, or three it takes to write the damn thing, what are you willing to pay to get that book in your hand?
Having about twenty books published, I can answer that question. As far as time goes? Whatever it takes. As far as money? Not one cent. Actually, you could convince me to put up to $500 – if your make a strong case. Otherwise? I write to make money, not to spend it. At this point I am ready to drop one publisher because I am not making enough from that publisher (and believe me, my expectations were not terribly high).
Seawriter
Not a penny.
Thank goodness Amazon came along. You can self-publish, not worry about some idiot “editing” the book to their taste (and the story’s detriment), and make a lot more money per copy. Someone selling a Kindle book for $3.99 makes more per copy than almost all authors will actually see on a $25 hardback, and immensely more than anyone will ever get on an $8 paperback.
Want a hardcopy? Go to Createspace. It’s just a few bucks.
https://www.createspace.com/Products/Book/