Category: Nonfiction Books

General publishing announcements

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Committer-signed “Absolute FreeBSD 3rd Ed” auction

This post is for bids on the brand new third edition of “Absolute FreeBSD” that I’m going to have signed by every developer I can catch at MeetBSD. Proceeds go to the FreeBSD Foundation.

Rules are on the announcement page, but in short: the auction ends on 20 October 2018, at the close of MeetBSD. Each bid must be at least $5 more than the prior bid. I’ll hand over or mail the copy upon getting a copy of the receipt for the FreeBSD Foundation.

The auction takes place entirely on this page. Folks at MeetBSD get no special advantage.

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AF3e ship date and next FreeBSD talk

The print version of Absolute FreeBSD, 3rd Edition leaves the printer on 4 October 2018. They will absolutely be on hand for MeetBSD.

Thanks go to Bill Pollock, shot-caller at No Starch Press, for making this happen. Paper shortages drove the printer to slip the ship date to mid-month, which would have made getting the books to MeetBSD impossible. Once he knew of the problem, he was able to properly aim the butt-walloping department and get the books done in time. Bill was also prepared to run a few copies as print-on-demand so I could meet my obligations, which is more than many publishers would be willing to do, but POD of big books is nowhere near as nice as real printing. Besides, my most eager readers, the ones likely to show up at MeetBSD, are the ones who most deserve a properly printed book.

Plus, if I’m gonna get on a blasted airplane because my new book is out, I at least want the book to be there when it arrives.

This doesn’t mean Amazon will ship your print book on 4 October. The books need to traverse the physical distance between the printer and the warehouses. But from here on out, it’s all routine.

In related news, I’ll be talking FreeBSD at mug.org on 9 October. With any luck I’ll have print books there too.

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I must credit Walmart

It’s very important to encourage people and organizations when they do something correct. Even when it’s an organization you don’t care for. I never thought I’d one day be compelled to say something nice about Wal-Mart.

But, as they say: here we are.

Walmart is implementing their ebookstore. It’s powered by Kobo, one of my very favorite ebook retailers.

Here’s the Walmart catalog entry for Ed Mastery as of today.

Ed Mastery entry at walmart

It’s categorized as “Books/Computers & Technology Books/System Administration/Linux & UNIX Administration” – all sensible, and what I entered.

Now here’s the catalog entry for the Manly McManface edition of Ed Mastery. I entered its category as “Books/Computers & Technology Books/System Administration/Linux & UNIX Administration.”

walmart catalog for ed mastery manly mcmanface

Walmart has it filed under Books/Computers & Technology Books/Security/Viruses & Malware.

I’m not sure, but I think Walmart… has started trolling MRAs?

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Second Editions versus the Publishing Business

I find myself with an extremely publishing-wonky moral dilemma, and want my readers’ opinions. My apologies for the length of this post.

Tech and academic publishers will frequently release a new and updated edition of a book simply to goose sales of the book. In college I bought three different versions of the same calculus book because they changed constants in the exercises. Calculus hadn’t changed, but the publisher gouged my wallet because they could. I had better use for that money, like getting desperately needed dental care.

Today I have my college degree, a bridge, and an assortment of fillings that rivals Jaws from 70s Bond flicks.

Second editions for the sake of second editions have a special place in my heart. A place with lots of flames, pitchforks, and high-power belt sanders applied to really delicate locations.

Second editions can be worthwhile and necessary, though.

I recently released a second edition of SSH Mastery. Unlike calculus, tech changes. The first edition contained actively incorrect information that would hurt people and dozens of minor flaws. It needed a polish. I’ve openly declared, repeatedly, that if you bought the first edition and kept up on changes in SSH, you don’t need to buy the second edition. Absolute FreeBSD is getting a new edition, eleven years after the previous edition. That’s too long, but life happens.

Similarly, TCP/IP Illustrated got a second edition. It needed one.

I’m finding myself in a moral quandry, though. One driven by publishing business.

My Tilted Windmill Press print books are available exclusively through Amazon’s CreateSpace print-on-demand program. This has been a potential problem for quite a while. I’m not a fan of monopoly or monopsony in my business dealings. The other major print on demand provider, IngramSpark, requires a publisher provide ISBNs. I deferred this purchase for several years, because ISBN pricing for US citizens is absurd.

Last December, I finally purchased a block of one thousand ISBNs so that I could use non-CreateSpace printers.

Ed Mastery and the new SSH Mastery were released on both CreateSpace and IngramSpark. FreeBSD Mastery: ZFS and FreeBSD Mastery: Advanced ZFS were re-issued under my own ISBNs and channeled through both printing services.

After a few months of sales data, I’m confident in saying that adding IngramSpark has increased book sales. I’m selling print books in Asia and Australia, which I’ve never done before. I expect to recoup my investment in ISBNs entirely in 2018, which is far ahead of my predictions. Cool.

Why did those sales increase? I’m considering this experimental evidence that CreateSpace’s non-Amazon distribution is not as good as one would hope. This is utterly unsurprising, as Amazon has repeatedly shown that they’re not interested in playing nicely with competitors.

The problem comes with changes in CreateSpace. Amazon is merging CS into their pure Amazon program, Kindle Desktop Publishing. Creditable industry scuttlebutt says that non-Amazon distribution will only get worse. It’s time to re-release all of the Tilted Windmill Press titles under new ISBNs. For most of the books, this only requires I take the time to assign ISBNs and make a couple minor changes in the

Some titles are troublesome, though. Specifically Networking for System Administrators, Tarsnap Mastery, Sudo Mastery, and DNSSEC Mastery.

I outsourced the design of these books. I used old ebook layout methods. The smart thing for me to do is insource all of them, redo the print layouts and covers, re-convert them to ebook, and reissue under new ISBNs.

But… all of these books contain nits.

DNSSEC Mastery covers DLV, which is no longer a thing, and the recommend algorithms have changed. Sudo development isn’t exactly breakneck, but there’s a couple new features that merit a nod in Sudo Mastery. Tarsnap Mastery specifically declares that there is no Tarsnap GUI. In the best tradition of tech publishing, the GUI came out right after I released the book. Networking for System Administrators, though… surely network principles are timeless? There’s stuff I would alter, add, and update. There’s always more to say about networking.

As long as I’m doing these reissues, shouldn’t I take a little time and update the text? It wouldn’t take terribly long, right?

Those updates would make the books second editions, though.

DNSSEC Mastery specifically says that DLV is going away, and to check for the current recommended algorithms. The Tarsnap GUI–well, frankly, who cares about that kind of error? “Oh, a GUI came out after the book was released? Cool, cool.” New sudo features? Sure, that’s life.

When I write my tech books, I do my best to future-proof them.

But if I don’t release second editions, then I’m reissuing books with known fixable warts.

I could put on the back cover: If you’ve read the first edition, and kept up with changes, you don’t need this second edition. My gut not only calls that lame, it does so in a loud taunting voice.

And I always try to play straight with my readers. Y’all bought me that bridge and those fillings.

So, what would you rather see? What makes sense to you?

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Author Discoverability

I’m at BSDCan, so it’s a great time to talk about the discoverability aspect of being a writer. My goal is to make a living as a writer for the rest of my life. My literary craftsmanship affects that, but it’s not the biggest factor.

When you read a book, a couple things can happen. You might get quit reading partway through and forget about it. You might read the book, take what you need, and move on. Or, if the author twiddles your brain just right, you’ll track down everything else the author has written and buy it all.

As a matter of craft, I need to improve my writing so that it’s more likely that people who happen to encounter my books experience that addictive dopamine rush.

But as a business, that’s insufficient. Businesses can grow, stagnate, or wither. I can scrape by on stagnation, but eventually my current readers will die and my business will wither. Yes, yes, dead readers are a tragedy and I’ll mourn each and every one of you, but more importantly, they’ll interfere with paying my mortgage.

So I need to grow my business, which means expanding my readership.

Growth means exposing my work to new readers. Every reader exposed to my text risks experiencing that dopamine rush and suffering addiction. This is called “advertising.”

I appreciate all the folks who tell others about my work. Frankly, a person’s word to a friend is the most powerful advertising you can have. But in some ways, I’ve achieved market saturation. If you run a BSD, you’ve been exposed to my books. If you watch BSDNow, you know who I am. I’m grateful that Allan and Benedict admit that I exist.

Parts of the non-BSD world know I exist. Every time Julia Evans says something nice about me, I get a sales surge. NixCraft supports my work with reviews and public statements. These folks help pay my bills.

So, I know my work can generate appeal beyond my core BSD crowd.

I’m now looking for other podcasts to appear on, for both fiction and nonfiction. I’ll be on IT in the D on 30 July. A couple other podcasts are in discussion.

Ideally, though, a book sells itself. A book generates buzz. One book that “hits” drags in many new readers.

I’ve had a viral hit in the last twelve months. A book brought in more readers than any podcast I’ve been on. That book is, of course, Savaged by Systemd.

When something works? Do it again, but differently. Maybe as a dystopia rather than satire. And with blockchain instead of systemd.

In unrelated news: I’m a bad person, and I should feel bad.

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“FreeBSD Mastery: Jails” Sponsorships, and writing schedule changes

I’ve been scurrying to finish git sync murder, the sequel to git commit murder, so I could have it at BSDCan.

This isn’t going to happen. If I’d been writing anything else it would have been done, but the numbers show that cozy mystery is not my natural form. Most of the time I top out at about 500 words per hour, as opposed to the 1000 wph I achieve writing fiction involving flamethrowers and bare-knuckled amateur dentistry.

For the record, I’m fine with the speed. Quality beats speed any day.

I’m therefore falling back to my usual writing schedule: 1.5-2 hours per day on fiction, and the rest on nonfiction.

Per my 2018 schedule, it’s time to start writing FreeBSD Mastery: Jails. I’ve been idly assembling the parts over the last couple of months.

For you folks who said you wanted to sponsor it: have your choice of ebook or print.

Depending on how this book comes out, I might do a second jails book. Print sponsors of this book will have the option to sponsor the second book at a reduced rate. Those who sponsor both will get special jail-themed recognition. It’ll completely depend on how complex the book is.

The goal is always the best book.

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New talks, and the F-bomb

The video from my recent mug.org visit is now online. It’s my ZFS introduction, as well as a brief talk about Ed Mastery.

I had originally planned a talk about ed(1), but the ZFS talk went too long. (That first speaker was a real blabbermouth.) Instead, they asked me to talk about why the book was a secret, how I arranged sponsorship for that book, and how the various versions of that book came to be.

This talk is a little rough, because I wasn’t prepared to give it. I completely winged the whole thing.

It’s also the first talk where I drop the F-bomb, live and on camera. Because I have to rehearse my talks beforehand if I want to eliminate the cussing.

My talk from BSDCan 2017, on the OpenBSD Web Stack, is now live. It appeared a couple of weeks ago, but I only found it now.

I’ve updated my YouTube playlist with all of these, as well as a couple older talks I missed and a BSDNow interview.

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Too Subtle for my Own Good

It turns out that part of my April Fool’s book release failed. More than one person has commented on the excoriating review of Ed Mastery posted on Dan Langille’s blog.

People missed the italicized text at the top:

Here’s a guest post by Michael W Lucas.

I wrote this review.

Of my own book.

Ripping it apart as a terrible idea, and myself as a terrible author.

Of all the parts of the Ed Mastery release that could be taken as a prank, this was the most prankish. I thought it was obvious.

The failure of a prank goes on the prankster. Live and learn.

Now, back to writing “git sync murder…”

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“Ed Mastery” follow-up

Yesterday I released #mwlSecretBook: Ed Mastery.

April first is the perfect day to release such a book. I wrote a nice release announcement and everything.

Now that April Fool’s is over I should probably say: this is a real book. It exists. You can buy it.

The Manly McManface edition? Yep, that exists. It is a real thing. To my surprise, people have bought it.

The release announcement? Completely sincere.

While I normally don’t solicit release day reviews, this time I did. Because if I’m releasing a book on ed, on 1 April, I want it to make a splash. There’s a lovely review from NixCraft. Peter Hansteen and Justin Sherrill gave their thoughts. Print sponsor Stefan Johnson also wrote a review, but I didn’t arrange that in advance; he just liked the book. In the interest of fairness, I should also point out this scathing review that appeared as a guest post on Dan Langille’s blog. (I know that last guy. He’s been trying to get me to play in freeway traffic for years.)

Since releasing that book, a few men have contacted me saying that while they usually like my work, the existence of the Manly McManface edition has prompted them to donate to men’s rights organizations. A few have declared that they pirated the book and then donated to said MRA organizations. To them I say:

Thank you for demonstrating my point. The Manly McManface edition was created just for you.