It seems crazy, but sometimes you can find ebooks on Amazon and other online stores for more than you’d pay for the hardcover. Case in point: I Am A Pole (And So Can You!), the new kids’ book by Stephen Colbert. As I write this, the price for the ebook is $9.99, yet you can grab the hardcover for $9.59. So why …
More Kickstarters to Check Out
As you probably know if you follow me on Twitter (@mforbeck), I’m a huge fan of Kickstarter, and not just because I’m using it to fund my 12 for ’12 plan. (Check out my latest for the Dangerous Games trilogy!) At last count, I’ve backed 66 projects myself, not all of which succeeded. I’d like to see what I can do …
The Real Way Ebooks Save Publishers
Part of my 12 for ’12 plan involves moving into self-publishing. This is the first of (I hope) a series of posts about why I decided to do this and how being an indie publisher works. If you’ve been following the ebook revolution, you’ll often hear publishers justify higher prices for ebooks by claiming that it doesn’t cost much less …
Global Domination
I built my career as a game designer before I became a novelist, and I still get back to it from time to time, although maybe not as often as I would like. I’m fortunate enough to have friends that tap me on the shoulder every now and then though and drag me back into gaming, even just for a …
Two New Covers
I have a pair of beautiful but very different covers to show to you today. The first is for Don’t Read This Book, a new anthology of short stories based upon Fred Hicks’s Don’t Rest Your Head RPG. Chuck Wendig put the whole thing together, and he lined up some fantastic talent to bring it to life, including Stephen Blackmoore, …
Twitter Chat on March 21 #SFFWRTCHT
Tomorrow evening, starting at 9 PM Eastern Time, March 21, I’ll be a guest on #SFFWRTCHT. That’s the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer Chat held on Twitter every Wednesday night and hosted by Bryan Thomas Schmidt. I’ll be answering all sorts of questions and chatting about many things, including Carpathia, 12 for ’12, the Magic: The Gathering comic, Kickstarter, and anything else …
Streams Crossed!
The Crossing the Streams contest came to an end last night, and today we have winners! First, we have Chris Bauer, whose Hollywood-style mash-up tickled my fancy the most: Rotten Sweet Tooth Imagine Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory meets Dawn of the Dead, okay? Starring Vin Diesel or John Cena (whoever is available) as the fearless, chainsaw-wielding candymaster who …
Meeting in the World of Warcraft
Next Thursday, March 1, I’m going to hold an author talk in the most unusual venue I’ve seen yet. I’m slated to speak with a group of librarians, using World of Warcraft as the medium. It starts at 4 PM Central Time on the Saurfang (Pacific) realm, in the Ironforge Library. You can find details and directions here. Many thanks …
Lost in Translation
One thing about writing tie-in or other work-for-hire books is that no one needs to let you know when they’ve sold the foreign-language rights to those books. This makes for some interesting moments when you find your name popping up on a book you’ve never seen before in a language you don’t speak. While looking for data on Amortels, I …
Review Roundup
A few reviews of my work – both past and future – have come in from different quarters over the past week. Here’s a quick roundup. Over at BlogCritics, Greg Barbrick raves over Book of Extreme Facts. He bought it as a Christmas gift for his son but couldn’t resist reading it himself. I had a wonderful time doing the research …