I’m pleased to announce that I’ve agreed to a deal for my next book with the U.S. publisher of my first book, Lyons Press. I’m not going to say much about the project for now, other than it’s a philosophy-of-technology book tentatively titled Humans 3.0, with a scheduled release between fall 2013 and spring 2014.
I’m excited to dive back into the book-writing process, which is terribly demanding but also supremely rewarding. It’s an opportunity to explore a topic in thorough thought and detail, which is especially welcome given the often quick-and-short nature of my regular daily routine.
I’m sure I’m going to get many questions as to why I decided to go with the old “Books 1.0″ system of working for a traditional publisher, what with the growth of self-publishing through platforms such as Amazon’s Kindle. I’ve long toyed with the idea and indeed, author Joe Konrath recently put forward a litany of reasons for doing so - reasons which, after some of my experiences with Sex, Bombs and Burgers, I completely agree with.
My rationale is pretty simple, really. As any author who has considered self-publishing can likely attest to, doing so mostly comes down to a consideration of brand versus brand - does the writer’s name carry enough weight for him or her to make a go of it alone, or is the clout of a publisher necessary to ensure that more than just a few people hear of and read the eventual book? With Sex, Bombs and Burgers only recently released in the U.S., I’m not as sure that I have much “brand power” in the country as of yet.
That said, I’m looking at this opportunity as the best of both worlds. When the manuscript is done, I may well choose to self-publish in Canada and elsewhere. That decision will depend on a number of factors that are hard to even predict right now. If there’s anything I’m sure of, it’s that the world - especially the publishing world - will be quite different near the end of 2013.
Either way, I’m excited to get under way. Now, on to actually working on the thing…
Sam Davies
February 21, 2012 at 7:18 am
Congrads, and good luck with the writing process. Without a doubt, it is disappointing that you are using the traditional services of the cartel, but who am I to argue about a personal business decision (with a wide range of ramifications). I’m curious - is “brand” a huge factor in the tech writing community? I would imagine that the subject at hand would be more important than authorship, and that only the niche market of hardcore tech geeks would actually pay attention to names. This opinion is of course based on my own reading habits, where more often than not, I don’t pay all that much attention to authorship when reading about tech online.
brockpearson
February 21, 2012 at 4:35 pm
Reblogged this on BlkJak MediaF1.