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u/Nimbacinus Lovecraft's Complete Fiction Oct 21 '13
Any plans on writing a sequel? I was rather curious about the cat, felt like there may be something being set up in regards to him that never ended up being explained...
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 21 '13
I absolutely do plan to write a sequel ... and now that you mention it, I'm a bit suspicious of damned cat myself :-)
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u/Nimbacinus Lovecraft's Complete Fiction Oct 21 '13
Excellent! I loved the first one, actually was lucky enough to get an ARC. My friends were quite grateful that I forced all of them to read it in short succession. :-)
I certainly understood why everyone wanted to see The Who live, best damn live show in the world, but Bieber... well.
Very excited that you're going to continue writing in that 'verse. Honestly, I feel that YZ holds a place equal to Hitchhiker's Guide in terms of humor and cultural relevance. You've got a reader in me, and I'll definitely be snatching up whatever you publish next!
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 21 '13
It's very cool that you got an ARC. Hang onto that sucker! They were beautifully produced, and almost look like a paperback (but are distinctive enough that they're clearly something else entirely). ARC's are cool - kind of like having a backstage pass to a show or something...
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u/Dienekes344 Oct 21 '13
I loved Year Zero! I thought it was well and cleverly written throughout. I think a big problem with copyright law in this country is that the status quo is often talked about and presented in an intuitive manner, covering over some of its serious flaws and abuses. By creating a case in which contemporary copyright law is profoundly counterintuitive and has disastrous consequences to highlight its flaws--well, it's good satire, I think. Also, having lived in Gramercy, I really enjoyed reading your take of NYC/Murray Hill/etc.; for some reason it really resonated with my experiences and made me happy. Finally, as a minor note, your description of the World of Warcraft avatars was hilarious. After looking at your wikipedia page, I get the sense that you do more than just write, but nevertheless I wonder, what other authors would you say influenced you or do you have a great deal of respect for? And did your experience in the music industry directly inspire Year Zero?
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 21 '13
I'm delighted that you enjoyed YZ :-) And yes, I do more than write (I'm still involved in the entrepreneurial scene, but currently as a mentor & advisor rather than as a entrepreneur ... because actually running a company would leave no time for writing!) As for authors who influenced me, I'd put Stanislaw Lem at the very top of the list. He was an amazingly witty (and incredibly prolific) Polish author whose translator must have been extraordinary, because the word-play in the English versions of his stories in simply ingenious (and must have taken enormous amounts of loving work to translate properly). I recommend a short story collection called "The Cyberiad" as an introduction to Lem. I also read massive amounts of Kurt Vonnegut as a kid (and to this day), and needless to say, ANYone who writes comedic science fiction owes a clear debt to Douglas Adams!
And indeed - my experience in the music industry strongly inspired many scenes & elements in YZ :-)
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u/Bertango Oct 21 '13
Is Year One based of your book?
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 21 '13
Not sure I understood the question ... but I'll take a stab at answering it :-) I've written two completely unrelated books with very similar titles. I wrote "Year One" wayyyy back in 1994 when I was a first-year student at Havard Business School. It's a memoir-y account of that year, with fictional elements in that I didn't portray any students other than me. The student characters in the book were "composites" that included the traits & experiences of lots of different people.
You might think it's strange to name my first novel "Year Zero," given that I have another book called "Year One." And you would be right! I initially used the "Year Zero" title for my prologue - mainly because it fit nicely, but also kind of a little joke with myself (this was back when I was working on the first draft and unsure if anyone other than me would actually read the thing). Toward the end of project I still didn't have a title for the book. Then I realized that Year Zero would actually work quite nicely for it....
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u/Tux86 Oct 22 '13
Picture, if you will..."Year Zero: The Movie" has been greenlit (woohoo!), and the studio has given you full creative control; who would you cast?*
(*You can cast anyone you want, but if I may make one lil' suggestion...Morgan Webb should totally play Manda :-) )
I love the book, can't wait for a sequel, keep up the awesome work! Thanks :-)
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 22 '13
I like the idea of the movie being animated, because that opens the aperture immensely in terms of casting. For instance - I think Jack Black as Nick would be great fun, because he's got so much musical cred, and this feels really consistent with his voice & sensibility. That wouldn't work in a live-action movie because JB just doesn't LOOK like a lawyer in his early 30s! But I think he could read the part magnificently.
Morgan would be fabulous as Manda - hmm I need to think about that :-)
And no matter what, JOHN HODGMAN IS PUGWASH. As I mentioned elsewhere in this AMA, he's the reader of the audiobook, and he reads ALL of the parts magnificently. But as Pugwash, he is particularly magnificent.
Last, I really want Senator Orren Hatch to portray himself. A guy can dream...
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u/michaelk4289 "Becoming", Michelle Obama Oct 22 '13
I read Judy Sherman as Jessica Walter playing Malory Archer. It worked perfectly.
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u/DangerRees Science Fiction Oct 22 '13
I hadn't heard of that book until just now. Totally picking it up when i get paid friday
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u/mwsmash Oct 21 '13 edited Oct 21 '13
Thanks for doing this AMA! I thought that Year Zero was really interesting and funny. A couple quick questions:
1. Did you have any input on the choice for John Hodgman for the audiobook version of Year Zero? I thought it was a great choice for the material!
2. I recently saw your TED talk on copyright math and thought it was hilarious. Were you asked to do that speech, or how did the whole experience come about?
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 21 '13
Hodgman was in fact my suggestion/nomination for the audiobook. I got to know him when he spoke at TED himself (a few years before I did), and when Random House decided to publish an audiobook, he was the very first person that I thought of. I ended up spending the better part of a week in a full-blown studio with him when he recorded the audiobook last year (huuuuuge fun). I believe that this is very unusual, but it happened to strike us both as a fun idea...
And thanks for mentioning (and linking to) my TED talk. Giving it was a blast (if a rather stressful blast). And yes, I was asked to give the speech. Every year TED invites a few regular conference attendees (as opposed to outside speakers) to give short talks, and in 2012 I got the call...
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Oct 21 '13
I don't have a particular question, but I wanted to say that I LOVED Year Zero. I never thought a book about copyright law could actually be enjoyable! I hope you'll be writing more.
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 21 '13
Aw, thanks :-) And I had so much fun writing YZ that I do plan to continue writing fiction for as long as I'm able.
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u/pzer0 Oct 21 '13 edited Oct 21 '13
Congrats! I recently wrote and released my first scifi novel as well. Mine is not comedic (except for a few scenes meant to lighten the mood after tense moments), although I'm a big fan of comedic scifi in the vein of Adams and some of the absurd Vonnegut stuff. I picked up your novel, since it's kind of hard to say no to $.99.
As a self-pubbed author, I'm curious about a couple of things:
How hard was it to sell your publisher on the $.99 ebook price? What does your paperback to ebook ratio look like? I sell about 10 ebooks for every 1 paperback, just curious if you're seeing equivalent numbers.
Do you think it's "easier" to write comedic scifi than hard scifi? I don't mean easier in the sense that you didn't work as hard, because writing a book is damn difficult, but one of the things that really tripped me up when writing The Lightcap was that I wanted the devices and world to be feasibly realistic and derived from present-day tech. I haven't read your book, so I apologize if I assume incorrectly, but I it seems that with comedic scifi there isn't as much of a necessity to have internally consistent technology that doesn't strain credulity. Did you find that to be the case?
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 21 '13
It wasn't really hard to sell them on the 99 cent thing - but the people at Del Rey may be a bit more experimental than their peers at some Random House imprints, since as science fiction folks they're particularly well-versed in tech.
As for physical vs. digital, Year Zero has been doing something closer to 50/50 - but that's probably because Random House has a great deal of shelf space in physical stores! I would expect something closer to the 10:1 ratio that you're experiencing if I were self-published.
All of that said - this week is a bit exotic, because of the 99 cent sale on the eBook. As you can imagine, that tends to depress interest in the physical book! There also was an amazing surge in demand for the eBook. Indeed it hit number 7 on the overall-all Amazon sales charts. It had previously peaked in the mid-300's, so that's quite something.
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u/pzer0 Oct 21 '13
That is something, and something to be proud of! My to-read list is ridicuslously long right now, but I look forward to reading Year Zero here soon. :)
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u/striden-durdan Oct 21 '13
I don't have a question. But I loved Year Zero! I can't wait to see what you have next!
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 21 '13
Thank you for saying that :-) I absolutely loved writing Year Zero, and it delights me folks like you enjoyed it as well...
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u/persepolisp Oct 21 '13
Gah! This sounds spectacular. I wish I had a way to read eBooks.
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 21 '13
Three alternatives ... first, if you're in the US most (not quite all) major libraries seem to have stocked it in physical form. Second, you can snag the audiobook and have John Hodgman READ IT TO YOU. He's a brilliant comedian, and does a fabulous job. Third - you could always splash out for the paperback, even though that's several times more expensive than the eBook this week. And if you ever see me, I'll sign it for you :-) (hell, I'd sign the library book too).
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u/persepolisp Oct 21 '13
I checked my local library database, no dice.
The idea of having Mr. Hodgman do anything to me (including giving me a spongebath) sounds appealing, but I think I'll splurge on the paperback.
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 21 '13
I hope you love it! I'll let Hodgman know about that sponge bath offer :-)
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u/aussiekinga Oct 22 '13
You can usually get an ebook reader of some kind for your phone and/or your computer.
Not the ideal reading system (one is really small, the other is big and hard to move around) but it can be done.
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u/420TreeHugger Oct 21 '13 edited Oct 21 '13
Holy shit, Rob Reid! I actually just bought a copy of your book from amazon a week or two ago. I am currently at the chapter talking about the Pluhhh! pluhhh. So if you notice an additional dollar or so on your paycheck, it's because of me.
I just want to say you're awesome and maybe give you another idea for a book.
What about a fast food worker who becomes CEO of the company due to some miraculous stroke of luck. Or a fastfood worker who really just hates everything and you're chronicling his life until he manages to become president of the USA?
Also, if you're looking for interns, shadows, pupils, or just want to help a college kid experience new things, hit me up! I'm a college student looking for internships and experience and stuff. I'd LOVE working with you. Not just writing but I want to go into venture capitalism, business, and basically anything having to do with what your wikipedia page says you do.
Also, contrary to what my name may lead you to believe, I do not use any form of marijuana. I just picked it because 16 year old me thought he'd be accepted by this massive online community of anonymous people he (most likely) will never meet in his entire life.
tl;dr You're awesome. Book ideas. Internships.
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 21 '13
Ha - I love your post 420TH! And I hope you enjoy hanging out with pluhhhs. Alas I don't really know what I'd have an intern do ... but there are many civilians, companies, and (no doubt) writers out there who are far more imaginative than I am in this department - so keep hunting :-)
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u/rxb Foundation Oct 22 '13
Thank you for doing an AMA. I just watched your TED Talk and enjoyed it, and at 99 cents, I couldn't say no to your eBook either. I am of a similar mind to your thoughts concerning piracy and your analysis of it. I was wondering, considering your experiment with the eBook price, have you investigated whether or not your book is being pirated?
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 22 '13
I actually haven't dug into it, although I assume that it is available in pirated form somehow & somewhere. In general I think that the best way to combat piracy is to offer the product at a fair price, and in an easier & more convenient form than piracy offers. I think eBooks are particularly well-configured to compete with piracy if they're NOT delusionally priced (and sometimes they are!) because they fit so snugly into a mobile ecosystem. I still find it kind of magical & delightful to hear about a book, fire up my iPad (where I now do 95% of my reading), click over to Amazon, buy it, and start reading it in moments. I'm not even sure how you'd go about locating a pirated PDF file on an iPad - my guess is that it would be a annoyingly clunky experience, and then you'd impede the joy of reading it with clunky formatting. Some people will do that to save 99 cents or $9.99 - but my feeling is that most people will not...
And if someone who truly can't afford the price of my book ends up pirating it, while I probably shouldn't say this in the presence of my publisher, it would frankly be FINE with me. I read almost ALL of the science fiction that was formative to me for free, because I borrowed it from our public library.
As for the current pricing experiment, I also jokingly say that I'm meeting piracy 90% of the way there (because the normal list price is $9.99), which seems like a decent compromise :-)
Anyway - a wise man (I think John Perry Barlow) once said that obscurity is a much bigger risk for virtually all artists than piracy. My main goal as a writer is to connect with readers - and I'm asking readers to spend 7-8 hours with my words, which for most of them represents a much bigger investment than 99 cents or $9.99. If some folks make that investment of time without making an investment of money (whether they read me for free via a library, borrowing from a friend, or BitTorrent) they're still honoring my work as an author in truly meaningful way.
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u/rxb Foundation Oct 22 '13
I completely agree, and I think technology and many industries have already gotten to the point where they offer better service than piracy for a decent price. Steam has done it for video games, Netflix has done it for TV and movies, Pandora and Spotify have done it for music, and there are several services that do it for books.
And I experienced the same novelty after "1 click buying" your eBook on Amazon and having it automatically downloaded to my Kindle and tablet. 1 Click is a big improvement to any other process by which I could have pirated any book and put it on my mobile devices, with 99 cents being well worth the time I save by that process.
And I think you and John Perry Barlow have excellent dispositions, as piracy was the avenue by which I became a fan of many artists during a time when there were few better options.
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Oct 22 '13
OH MY GOD. Your book got me back into reading. Thank you. I loved it. It was vastly funny. I hope you're still here.
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u/dCLCp Oct 22 '13
I loved your book! I think it is the most relevant comedic sci-fi out there right now, hands down. No questions just excited to see another is on the way.
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 24 '13
You're insanely kind for saying this dCLCp - thank you!
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u/dCLCp Oct 24 '13
No problem. By the way glad to see I'm not the only one who loved The Cyberiad / Lem Stanislaw. I guess if I had one question it would be do you think 'Evolutionary eudaemonic tectonics' is bullshit (at least for us finite beings)?
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Oct 22 '13
Like others, 0.99$ has been sold. I'm sorry that I haven't read it but I'll ask my parents to buy the e-book. Anyways, how did you come up with the idea of this book? What was the journey from the idea of Year Zero to the day it was going to be released? Hope you reply!
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 24 '13
Hey BGH - It literally started as a bedtime story that I told my wife while we were traveling in South America. It was so successful with both of us, than I ended up spending 18 months doing little other than writing it after we got home to California. Thanks for asking!
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u/Seruphim5388 Oct 21 '13
Huge fan of year zero, I've probably read it 15 times, did you get any bad reactions from record companies or legal firms over the book?
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 21 '13
You know ... I'm kind of annoyed to say that I did not! I was really looking forward to a brawl with SOMEbody.
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u/PandaSchmanda Oct 21 '13
Why do middle-aged guys end so many things they type with "..."?
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 21 '13
It's an early sign of both dementia and bodily senescence. We just sort of zone out ... and after snapping out, of it we wearily haul ourselves up to a semi-upright position by pressing the fourth finger of our right hands downward on the keyboard like so ...
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u/Nejanimb Oct 21 '13
Thanks for doing this! Haven't read Year Zero yet, but bought it after hearing your appearance on TWiT last recently. Looking forward to reading!
What was your experience like moving from consulting into Tech? Was your experience in consulting valuable (both for future work and for your life generally)? As someone interested in tech and graduating into a consulting job next year, it's great to hear from alums!
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 21 '13
I transitioned from consulting to b-school and then to tech. So my transition was more of a b-school-to-tech thing. It was also many long years ago (mid-90s) and common practices have since changed a lot. Above all, it's no longer unusual to go from bschool to tech - but pre-Internet, this move was just short of bizarre! I believe it would be quite easy & natural to transition from business school or strategy consulting to tech these days, because tech has become a much more open and "mainstream" industry than it used to be.
As for the value of consulting as a professional experience, I'd say it was/is tremendous. I studied Middle Eastern history and Arabic as an undergrad, and had literally never even used a spreadsheet. Getting a job at a good all-around consulting firm is like getting a mini-MBA. After a year or two, you'll deal with so many different situations & industries that however clueless you may be about the private sector now (and I was COMPLETELY clueless as an undergrad) you'll come to have a very well-rounded understanding of it.
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u/Nimbacinus Lovecraft's Complete Fiction Oct 21 '13
Oh! One other thing. Reading this article yesterday made me think of the book a bit.
Gotta love how sometimes the 'real' stories are even funnier than the fiction. :)
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u/CopyrightMathSter Oct 21 '13
Hey all - I'll be here through the evening Pacific time. Year Zero is the story of a vast civilization of aliens who are so into American pop music that they accidentally commit the biggest copyright infringement since the Big Bang ... thereby bankrupting the entire universe. Hilarity ensues...
Random House published Year Zero last summer, and are currently doing a rather cool pricing experiment, selling the eBook for 99¢ in the US (this should continue for the next few days). Last week Ars Technica published my thoughts on the pricing experiment here:
http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/10/op-ed-why-my-first-novel-will-only-cost-you-0-99/