Category: Nonfiction Books

General publishing announcements

Posted on

2013 Failures and 2014 Goals

I set goals for 2013. And I failed to meet them. I promised three short nonfiction books, Absolute OpenBSD 2nd edition, and a novel. You got AO2e and two short nonfiction books, DNSSEC Mastery and Sudo Mastery.

While setting goals is important, exploring why you fail to meet those goals is just as important. Driving factors behind these goals boil down to three things.

  • These were pretty ambitious goals
  • Traveled to EuroBSDCon in September
  • January’s emergency appendectomy

    • I knew this was ambitious beforehand, but decided to try for it anyway. So, the first I accept as my own inability to realistically predict what I can do.

    I spent two weeks in Europe, both for EuroBSDCon and meeting with other writers and publishers. If I had to fly for eight hours one way (which I detest), and shift my body clock (which I find very difficult), I was going to make the trip worthwhile. But between preparing for teaching at EuroBSDCon, physical preparations for the trip, and recovering from the trip (both physically and real life), that cost me at least a month.

    You cannot predict something like an appendolith. That’s life. I didn’t merely have an appendolith, though. I had fever and infection and all sorts of horrible ghastly things. Proper recovery took months. Plus, general anaesthesia is insidious. Even when you wake up, it muddles your brain for weeks or months afterwards.

    When life derails your goals, you get back up as soon as you can and get back on track. Maybe you can’t complete the entire goal, but you can sure do a whole bunch of it. Or maybe the deadline slips into the next year. Whatever you do, you don’t quit.

    So: I failed.

    With those things in mind, let me set some goals for 2014. I already let part of this out at NYCBSDCon, so the rest of you might as well know.

    1) I will write at least three short nonfiction books. At least one will be on OpenBSD, at least one will be on FreeBSD. At least two will see print by the end of the year.

    2) Last year’s novel will get out of my house. A couple of my author friends are encouraging me to run the novel through a publisher and have offered introductions. Their faith in my work is sincerely touching. I’m inclined to self-publish, but am keeping an open mind. We’ll see what happens. (I waited to publish this list until I finished the first draft, for those who wonder.)

    3) I’ll write at least 120,000 words of fiction. (See FAQ 9.)

    4) I will not change time zones for a conference. EuroBSDCon was great, and I’m sure that the Sofia conference will be just as grand, but that kind of travel messes me up too badly to write. I’ll be at BSDCan, but this year I’m taking the train. Because I really, really abhor flying.

    5) I’m a candidate for my dojo’s red sash test this year. If selected, I will do my best to pass. This means much practice and sweat, as the test lasts several hours. For example, my green sash test included over four hundred falls. The falling isn’t bad, but getting up again gets pretty rough. The red sash test is worse.

    My deadline for these goals in February 2015. Because my birthday is in February. Using my personal year for goals always feels better than using the calendar year.

    In a more general sense:

    I’m starting a series of short FreeBSD books, each dedicated to a single topic. Which topics will I cover? Whatever I’m working with at the moment, that’s holding still long enough for me to write about it. For example, at this moment it doesn’t make sense for me to write a book about pkgng, because pkgng is developing quickly.

    Eventually, I’ll create enough FreeBSD content to “remix” into a big FreeBSD book, probably a 3rd edition of Absolute FreeBSD.

    The small books will use the 6×9 form factor, and all be about the size of SSH Mastery. People have taken well to this size of book at the $10 ebook/$20 print price point.

    This will also let me judge which material should go into a big book. If nobody buys, say, a small FreeBSD virtualization book, it’s clear I shouldn’t put that topic into a big book, because nobody cares.

    Ideally, I’ll be able to produce a slipcase for a complete collection of small FreeBSD books. At this time, I’m planning to give them themed covers based on old pulp magazines, minus the blatant sexism and racism. (It’s been suggested by more than one person that I keep both elements but make them funny. It CAN be done, just as it is possible to make thoughtful, incisive, and honestly funny jokes about any other painful or horrifying topic. But it’s extraordinarily hard, especially for someone who looks utterly “privileged white male.” I choose to spend my energy elsewhere.) But Beastie as a hard-boiled private eye, Beastie swinging on a vine through the jungle, Beastie as the flying ace, and so on? I think that’s going to look fantastic.

    What will the OpenBSD book be? I have three ideas. I’ve caught wind of other OpenBSD books in progress, however. I need to meet with my fellow BSD authors at BSDCan 2014 and hash things out with them. It’s very important that we not step on each other’s else’s projects, especially when it’s simple enough to avoid with five minutes at the bar. That’s why I won’t do, say, a pfSense book — Chris and Jim have that territory covered quite well. I’m confident that at least one of my three ideas will be free, if for no other reason than we don’t have that many OpenBSD authors.

    I expect to let the FreeBSD Foundation have books at cost for PBS-style donation prizes. “Donate $100, and we’ll send you this $20 book!”

    I have a clever idea for using the OpenBSD book to support OpenBSD. Theo and I discussed it briefly at EuroBSDCon. I don’t know if it will actually work, mind you. But worst case, they’ll have my book in the OpenBSD bookstore, with proceeds going to OpenBSD. (For anyone who is wondering, Austin Hook is very very easy to work with. The hardest part of getting books to the OpenBSD bookstore is figuring out how to cram all the shipping information onto the CreateSpace web form, which is certainly not Austin’s fault.)

    So, is this a cynical scheme to get you to give me more money? No… and yes.

    You’ll have the option to give me any amount of money you wish, from zero up to over a hundred bucks. There’s a couple people that I suspect will buy every book, in every version. I suspect others will get a few of the small books. Others will wait for a big book. Some will buy all the small books just so they can fill a slipcase. This is about options. It’s about getting content into reader’s hands as quickly as possible.

    But if you want to give me money, I’m certainly not going to argue.

    The good news is, I now know exactly what an appendolith feels like. The next time my appendix blows up, I’ll jump on it at the earliest possible moment. Why, just today I’ve felt three twinges that might have been a faulty appendix. Catching these things early is the key to quick recovery, after all.

    Posted on

    Amazon gets it wrong

    Amazon sends us Kindle owners an email every few days saying “You bought this and that, so we think you’ll like these items.” They’re right an annoying large portion of the time, but when they get it wrong they really blow it.

    Like I'd buy any of these
    Amazon Recommendation Failure

    Okay, yes, the book of PF is pretty good. But I have a copy. And I actually paid cold hard cash for the FreeBSD Design & Implementation book, and waited in line to get it signed. Either of these would be excellent gifts for the BSD aficionado in your life, except that they probably already have them.

    But the others? The author has never said a nice word about me. In fact, every time I get near him he calls me a lazy good-for-nothing who ought to be working harder, better, and smarter, eating less, and in general doing more for humanity. Flavored with a whole lot of really bad language. One of these days, I’m going to punch that bastard in the face.

    The good news is, Amazon doesn’t know everything about us. Yet.

    Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to buy everything I need for the next month via my Amazon Prime subscription.

    Happy holidays, everyone!

    Posted on

    Sudo Mastery and DNSSEC Mastery now at OpenBSD bookstore

    The official OpenBSD bookstore now carries both DNSSEC Mastery and Sudo Mastery print. If you buy the print from them, you get the ebook as well. These books sell for list price, but sales support the OpenBSD Project.

    I am not donating all my proceeds from these books to OpenBSD, however. I did that with SSH Mastery, because the OpenBSD guys kind of take it in the shorts with OpenSSH. One of my goals is to have the ability to make a living writing without needing survival tips like “There’s great cardboard boxes behind the appliance store” and “Get to Qdoba right after they close, because the night guy will give you a bag rather making you scrounge in the dumpster.” But the negotiations on this were pretty strange:

    Me: Sorry, guys, but I have to charge a couple bucks for myself on this.

    Them: No, you don’t. You charge us what you would charge any other direct order.

    Me: Oh, I can do better than that for you.

    Them: No, we want to pay what anyone else would pay.

    Me: Really, a discount isn’t a problem.

    Them: TAKE THE MONEY. DO NOT ANGER US.

    Me: [gulp] As you command.

    The end deal they got is better than what I charge Amazon. (Or, to be more accurate, it’s a better deal than the tithe Amazon extracts before condescending to carry my books.) If you want TWP books in bulk quantities, let me know.

    And if your company uses OpenSSH, get them to donate something. OpenSSH has ridiculous market share, and the developers basically work for tips. You wouldn’t leave a restaurant after a fabulous meal without tipping the wait staff, would you? Then why would you do that with software?

    Posted on

    On asking me to write for you

    [posted for later reference]

    In the first eleven days of December 2013, I have received eight requests for me to write for a periodical such as a web site or a magazine. This is nice. I struggled for many years to get published. To have publishers knock on my door and ask for my work gives me a certain warm fuzzy feeling. They’re trying to fill in their 2014 editorial calendars, and want me to be part of it? That’s kind of cool.

    There’s only one problem: they want to pay me with a subscription. The more generous ones offer advertising space. I address this in my FAQ, but it seems these people either don’t read the answer, don’t comprehend the answer, or think the answer doesn’t apply to them.

    Here’s an explanation with more detail.

    My writing time is completely occupied, either with work that I expect will return financial rewards or “writing of the heart” — projects that I really want to do, but that I accept will not pay.

    Generally speaking, if you’re contacting me with a request to write for you, you expect to make money off of my writing. That makes this a business transaction. This means I expect to get paid an amount that is roughly equivalent to the amount I would make if I expend that amount of effort on other paying channels. A thousand-word article is almost certainly more than $50 of my time.

    But it’s also important to not be a jerk. The world is a small place.

    From now on, I’ll answer these requests with a form letter.

    Hi,

    Thanks for your interest.

    At this time, I am completely occupied with paying writing work, so I cannot take your offer. But thanks for thinking of me.

    Regards,
    ==ml

    I’m not a total mercenary. I put a fair amount of technology content up in this blog, free for anyone who can use a search engine. But: I have a day job. My writing time is taken away from family and friends. I might choose to give up some of that time for someone. But that “someone” will be a person, not a business.

    I know other people will write for these periodicals. Someone always will. But that’s their choice. I choose otherwise.

    Posted on

    Sudo Mastery print now at Amazon

    You can now get a print Sudo Mastery from Amazon.

    I have signed all of the Mastery books up for the Matchbook program. People who buy the print book from Amazon will soon be able to get the Kindle version for $2.99. It’s not an ideal print/ebook combo, but I’m not nearly well enough organized to ship out physical books directly.

    Posted on

    OpenBSD talk at Farmington Community Library 12 November 2013

    I’ll be presenting about OpenBSD at !Michigan/usr/group, a Linux and UNIX user group, on Tuesday, 12 November 2013. The tentative title “OpenBSD for a Linux User Group,” covering the features and culture that make OpenBSD what it is. (Hint: it’s not security.)

    These talks are always more fun when readers show up to heckle, throw rotten tomatoes, and question my morals and parentage.

    If I have sufficient connectivity and nobody objects, I’ll try to do a Google Hangout for it. But you can’t throw rotten tomatoes over IP. Yet.

    Posted on

    “Sudo Mastery” print + ebook bundle via Amazon

    I’ve mentioned this before in various forums and in passing, but it bears a small emphasis.

    Some people want books in both ebook and print. I’m not set up to do that, but Amazon is making that happen through their Matchbook program. The general idea is that if you bought a book in paper, you can get the ebook version at a steep discount.

    I’ve put both existing Mastery paperbacks in the program. If you’ve bought the print book from Amazon, you can get the electronic version for $2.99. When Sudo Mastery hits paperback, it’ll be included.

    Why $2.99?

    I feel the fair price for the combo is about $20. The list price on the print books is $20, but Amazon knocks a few bucks off based on their own inscrutable algorithms. I’ve seen SSH Mastery as low as $14 and as high as $18.

    There’s also the Amazon royalty on Kindle books. Ebooks priced less than $2.99 pay me a 35% royalty. Ebooks priced at $2.99 and up pay 70% royalties. If I price the Matchbook versions at $2.99, I make about $2.00 per sale. If I price them at $1.99 (the next lower option), I make about $0.66/sale. Ouch. Either way, that’s a lot of sales to pay the mortgage.

    All this is a long-winded way of saying:

    If you want both the print and ebook versions of Sudo Mastery, wait until the print version comes out. You’ll be able to get both for about $20, more or less.

    I never buy my print books through Amazon’s retail channel — I buy them in bulk, from their CreateSpace arm. I would really like confirmation that folks who bought a print Mastery book from Amazon can get the ebook at a discount. If you bought a print Mastery, please take a look at Amazon. See if you can get the Matchbook deal and let me know in the comments here.

    Posted on

    “Sudo Mastery” ebook widely available, and acknowledgements

    At long last, Sudo Mastery is now available in ebook form on most platforms.

    You can get it at my bookstore or Amazon.

    It’s also available at Smashwords, but Smashwords doesn’t support footnotes. They do support a workaround that puts all footnotes together at the end of a chapter or the end of the book, but it’ll take some work on my part to make that happen.

    It’s not at Barnes & Noble yet, because their new Nook Press application completely mangled the book’s formatting. As I sell an average of one book a month through B&N, I’m seriously considering not having the book there.

    Print will come some time in November.

    I appreciate all the people who helped me write this book. So, in that spirit, here are the acknowledgements.

    I want to thank the folks who reviewed the manuscript for Sudo Mastery before publication: Bryan Irvine, JR Aquino, Hugh Brown, and Avigdor Finkelstein. Special thanks are due to Todd Miller, the current primary developer of sudo, who was very patient and helpful when answering my daft questions.

    While I appreciate my technical reviewers, no errors in this book are their fault. All errors are my responsibility. Mine, do you hear me? You reviewers want blame for errors? Go make your own.

    XKCD fans should note that the author does not particularly enjoy sandwiches. However, Miod Vallat, currently exiled to France, would really like a sandwich with nice fresh bread, really good mustard, and low-carb ground glass and rusty nails. And Bryan Irvine would like a rueben.

    This book was written while listening obsessively to Assemblage 23.

    Now, to finish writing my big 2013 fiction project before the end of the year…