Category: Nonfiction Books

If you preordered Run Your Own Mail Server, backed the Kickstarter, sponsored the book, or get my books as a Patronizer, you should have got a note or a post about your copy of the ebook.

As people always find especially persistent typos right after I release the ebook, I’m waiting to order print books until Monday.

For the next couple of days I’m reviewing the paperback print proof of Run Your Own Mail Server. I received the proofs just before I flew to Vegas, and while I glanced through the book in between my meetings, I spent most of my energy selling work and learning new ways to insinuate myself into the publishing ecosystem. I must dedicate time to examining each page, even though looking at the text triggers mental torment.

If it all looks good, or good enough, I’ll be closing preorders on this Wednesday, 14 August, so I can order paperbacks.

The hardcover proof is en route, because the printer screwed up shipping. The interior is exactly the same as the paperback, so I only need to review the cover and binding.

What exactly does “good enough” mean? Minor problems can be fixed by changing a word or adding a vowel mean I need to send the printer a new PDF, but I won’t order a new print proof. If I must redo the interior layout, including shifting content from one page to another or adjusting the cover text, I must order a new proof.

Between print sponsors and Kickstarter backers I must mail hundreds of these dang things. It’s especially important I get this one as correct as possible.

Once I can check the hardcovers, I’ll start those orders.

The art for the backers-only special edition has arrived. The special edition uses the hardcover as a base. Once I approve the regular hardcovers I can start on the special edition.

The ebook is based on the paperback. Once I finalize the paperback I can start on the ebook. Maybe this week?

Making it the biggest Mastery book I’ve ever written. I was right to make the ebook $15, and I suspect the print version will wind up being $35. Won’t know until I feed it to the printer.

Now I go through the manuscript page-by-page with my red pen and highlighters, looking for layout errors. And content errors. Yes, I’ve caught content errors at this stage before. The best way to perceive an error in a manuscript is to change the form.

With luck I’ll have a clean interior to submit to the printer in a couple days, and a print proof will arrive the week after. I check the proof repeatedly for a few days. If that works, I’ll be ordering the regular books. (The only blocker for the special edition is the art, which arrives about 15 August. I’ll order that proof right away.)

It’s been over a year since I did this kind of check, and it seems that all of my highlighters except the blue and pink have dried out. I fear that this will turn into some sort of gender reveal disaster… but I knew the risks when I got into this business.

Wish me luck. I’m going in.

Yesterday, the copyedits on Run Your Own Mail Server returned. This means that today I’ll be setting up a Discord and integrating into my Patronizer systems to replace the Video Hangout level, writing the next column for the FreeBSD Journal and, coincidentally, the last column for Dear Abyss. I asked Simon Travaglia if he’d be interested in doing a foreword but he sensibly declined, so I guess I better write something to introduce that travesty. (I’m open on suggestions for people to approach, mind you.)

Anyway.

Once I complete the copyedits, I start on the page layout.

Once I complete page layout, I order print proofs and make the ebook.

The print proof is my absolute last chance to fix errors. At that point, I turn off preorders and order sponsor, Patronizer, Kickstarter, and preorder copies.

I have no date for this. Depends on if the copyeditor can cause me as much pain as I caused her.

But it’s approaching. Preorder now if you want a signed book.

And before anyone else asks about a signed ebook: that was a Kickstarter-only item, sorry.

The “We Get Letters” column of the FreeBSD Journal is my opportunity to subtweet the Sysadmin Discourse of the Day. There’s far more than one Discourse between issues but let’s be real, most of the discourse isn’t worthy of discussion.

Anyway, I talk configuration management in the newest issue. My column appears first in the magazine, which I’m certain means something. Probably that the editor has been kidnapped and he’s asking his friends to rescue him, but that specifically excludes me so it’s not my problem.

If you like the column, you might grab the Letters to Ed(1) collection, containing the first three years of these columns. It will go out of print soon, because I’ll be publishing the Dear Abyss collection of years 1-6. But hey! Letters to Ed(1) will become a collectors item!

The copyeditor reports she’ll be done fixing my innumerable errors around 15 July.¹

My goal is to get ebooks out before 4 August, and print in later August.

You can now preorder “Run Your Own Mail Server” at tiltedwindmillpress.com.

The last time I did a print sale (for OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems), I offered options. From that sale, I learned that I am easily confused and should not offer options. This time I’m keeping things simple.

You can order a paperback or a hardback. It’s slightly more expensive than retail, because managing shipping is actual work that takes me away from writing.

When the books are ready to print, I will close this sale and order the sponsor, Kickstarter, and direct order copies in one gigantic heap. I will send out the ebooks a day or two after that.

Books will be shipped to me. I will open the boxes and sign them one after the other. I will print shipping labels, stuff books into envelopes, and request the post office schedule the Pickup Of Doom.

That’s it. Nothing fancy. No extra books, sorry.

This is the only way you can now get a signed book without finding me in meatspace. I am looking at ways to integrate drop-shipping print books into my web store, but none of them are quite satisfactory yet. Several printers are close–but not quite there. Either they have great Woocommerce integration but only ship from one location, or they dropship globally but have terrible integration. It’s very frustrating.

I should probably also mention that, while Kindle-friendly versions will be available from several retailers, Run Your Own Mail Server will not be on Amazon’s Kindle store, for the same reasons OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems is not. This is a larger Mastery title and ebooks will retail for $15.

All I can say is “what?”1966 backers. $76,833.
I have never received that much for a single title in a single lump. The Absolute books might each $40,000 over their publishing lifetime, spread over years, occasionally boosted by Humble Bundles and the like. This is stunning.
My gratitude to everyone.
Some comments, in no particular order. I could put them in order, if my brain wasn’t fried from screaming NUMBER GO UP! NUMBER GO UP! all weekend.

• 31% of pledges were referred by Kickstarter. I suspect that’s from the “Project We Love” algorithm.
• The dashboard gives referrers for incoming links. 55% of incoming traffic was “Direct traffic or no referrer information. The big social media sites like Facebook and Hacker News show up as referrers. So, what’s that 55%? It’s some sort of web site. I suspect it’s the Fediverse, aka “Mastodon and friends.”
• What the heck? What the absolute heck??? How did any book I write bring in this kind of money?

The catch with Kickstarter is, of course, that I don’t get to keep the money. Half of it goes to fulfillment. Half of what remains gets held back for taxes. What remains is a nice chunk of cash, but I need a new car and some roof work. (I’m 57 years old and the roof is a 45-degree slope, I no longer climb up there.)

This has convinced me to run every single dang book through Kickstarter, though. Because lightning does strike twice.

If you missed the Kickstarter and want to preorder a print/ebook combo, I’ll have that up on tiltedwindmillpress.com in a few days.

So, uh, this is a thing.

Admittedly, about half of this will go to fulfillment and half of what remains will be held for taxes. (Taxes will probably be less than that, but self-employed people must always have tax money on hand. Always.) Still, I’ve never had a chunk of money this large for a single book hit my account all at once.

Thanks to backers sharing the word and saying nice things about me, all backers will get six books: Run Your Own Mail Server, Networking for System Administrators, $ git commit murder, Ed Mastery, PAM Mastery, and Sudo Mastery. Plus another “book,” but we don’t talk about that one.

That’s a lot of ebooks for $15. Or print, for a bit more. How much more? Depends on where I have to ship them.

There might be more. That depends entirely on other people, I have no control, so I don’t know.

The Kickstarter ends Sunday, 9 June 2024, at 8PM EDT–or, if you prefer, 0:00 UTC. Which you do prefer, if you’re the target audience for this book.

Pessimism is the path to happiness. Either you have the pleasure of being correct, or you are delightfully surprised.

I had hoped that the Run Your Own Mail Server Kickstarter might bring in several thousand dollars. I dreamed that if I was lucky, over the twenty days it would raise as much as the Prohibition Orcs Kickstarter. After all, this book had been heavily sponsored. I had exhausted my market.

But Kickstarter is a discovery platform, and was worth trying.

One week into this thing and it’s raised $29,731 from 719 people.

I am stunned. And my family can sure use the money.

Anyone who backs the campaign at $15 or more gets not just RYOMS, but ebooks of Networking for Systems Administrators, Ed Mastery, and $ git commit murder. At $32,500, I’ll add an ebook of PAM Mastery.

I would appreciate folks sharing this Kickstarter on their social media, discussion boards, chat rooms, IRCs, or whatever y’all use. It’s one heck of a deal.

People talk about “life changing money.” This isn’t that. But it will let me take a long, deep breath and relax.

Thank you.