This is the first single off Professor Elemental’s album, the Indifference Engine.

Heh.

He’s even part of a weird stage act called The Uncanny Valley.  Man, why does all the cool stuff happen in London?

Paradise or Prison?

A nice, punchy little video made by a journalist for the NYT, David Carr.   What happens when you spend 6 days on an island in the Bahamas with no internet connection? Don’t expect a profound revelation, but it’s cute and it makes me long for a vacation away from the web.  Given that I’m a one man company supporting sites on the web, that will not happen any time soon.

Because it’s the NYT, I can’t embed this one. You have to view it over on their site.

Suckerpunch

This movie made the rounds once before, but this is looking like a newer trailer with some additional information.  I’m a bit wary of anything that involves dreamscapes and escapist realities—the temptation by screenwriters to undo everything they wrote with a “it was all a dream” ending sometimes proves too great to resist.  And the imagery is a bit… fan-service-y?  It punches my button labeled “cool!” in such a methodical fashion I feel just a little bit manipulated.  I suspect the attempted rape bit is going to really tick off some folks.  What do you think of it?

Busking Robot

Here’s one from an animator’s demo reel.  It’s cute and short and really, who doesn’t love dancing robots?   The creator is Elad Offer, who seems to be doing a large number of television commercials.

Sorry for a video-rich Monday.  I’m in one of those moods where all I want to do is consume media and ponder it.  I don’t feel like I have anything signficant to say at the moment. Hopefully the week ahead will prove me wrong, because blogging without having something to say is like sex without orgasm.  Exercise, but ultimately unfulfilling.

Into The Dark: 100 Beautiful Examples of Night Photography

Which one’s your favorite?  Mine is definitely “light and darkness.”

Metal Ancestors features a local tourist attraction called the Swetsville Zoo.  The less I say about it, the better—let the video describe it to you.  I haven’t made it out there yet, but after watching this, I really want to find the time.  I might even get my camera out of the closet for the occasion. 

Metal Ancestors from Levi Thornton on Vimeo.

There are low-cost creative tools everywhere you look—tools enabling people to do amazing things that look as professional as the stuff made with $50,000 worth of camera gear. I love living in the future.

Konrath EBooks Sales Top 100K

Joe Konrath isn’t a writer who I was familiar with until today, but he’s seeing some amazing success going against traditional publishing methods. Joe’s making more money on his own with ebook sales than he makes from any of his books with traditional publishers. 

Why are my self-pubbed ebooks earning more than Whiskey Sour, which remains my bestselling print title with over 80,000 books sold in various formats?

Because Hyperion has priced Whiskey Sour at $4.69 on Amazon, and I price my ebooks at $2.99.

For each $4.69 ebook they sell, I earn $1.17.

For each $2.99 ebook I sell, I earn $2.04.
So I’m basically losing money hand over fist because Hyperion is pricing my ebooks too high, and giving me too low a royalty rate.

Even the print sales (Whiskey Sour just went into a fifth printing) don’t come close to making up the money I’m losing.

If we assume I could sell 833 copies per month of Whiskey Sour, I’d be earning $17,000 per year on it, rather than $5616 per year. (I’m guessing my numbers have gone up recently, and am estimating 400 Whiskey Sour sales per month.)

Let’s multiply that times the six books Hyperion controls.

I’m estimating I currently earn $33,696 annually in ebook royalties on those six.
If I had the rights, I estimate I’d earn $102,000.

Do I want my books to go out of print?

Hell yeah.

We’re seeing a gold mine rush in ebook publishing right now, and I don’t think it’s anywhere near peaked, as Konrath points out.   I predict as people look at his hard numbers, we’re going to see a lot of prominent writers rethinking their attitudes about self-publishing.  We’re going to see ebook rights playing a much larger role in negotiations.  Successful writers who own their own ebook rights are going to find that publishers are going to play hard in trying to acquire them—it would not surprise me if authors are being told they won’t sell new works unless they sell off the ebook rights to older books.  Publishers have got to be looking at this whole situation and rethinking their game.  I know authors are.

The world is changing.  The world has changed so much from 8 years ago when I started writing.  And it’s still moving.

And what’s more, this kind of “set out on your own and make a living at what you love” success story isn’t limited to publishing fiction.  Indie video game developers are seeing the same thing.

$250,000-a-day Minecraft striks indie game gold

Minecraft.  I’ve lost at least one weekend to the game.  It’s in alpha.  Costs about $12.  Has graphics that are about on par with Nintendo 64.  But it’s addictive. Oh god, is it.  Mix a little action adventure with the sandbox pleasure of building stuff with lego blocks, and you kind of get at the central play model.

Basically, you start Minecraft and you have an entire world in front of you, populated with a few animals, trees, and hills.  There’s some water and sand too.  You’re kind of at a loss at what to do first.  You punch stuff, and soon you find that trees break apart into logs which you pick up and add to your inventory.  You look in your inventory and you find a 2x2 crafting matrix.  Throw a couple of piles of logs in there and you can make sticks.

Do you see where this is going?

Sticks turn into basic tools. Tools like you get new materials like stone, and eventually metals when you dig deep enough.

Problem is, when the sun sets, monsters come out, and you don’t stand a chance against them with your fists and sticks.  So you need to build a shelter to protect yourself, and you need light, so you make torches.

This Penny Arcade comic captures the essence of the experience pretty damned well.

And it’s only in Alpha.  It’s amazingly addictive as it is—who knows what features the developer, Notch, is planning on adding to the game. 

Minus some Paypal fees, the money Notch is making on this game is pretty much pure profit.  And recently, he made $250,000 in one day selling copies of an unfinished game that has no traditional publisher, with what I suspect is a near-zero marketing budget.  The game’s gotten plenty of word of mouth, but that’s about it.  Now, Notch is hiring staff and building his own game studio.

Do you see the pattern here? I know I do.  Creative folks are waking up in a world where we don’t need permission from anyone else to chase our dreams.  The problem is still going to be one of quality, and conquering obscurity, but barriers between artist and audience are absolutely, without a doubt, crumbling.  You can argue whether this is a good or a bad thing, but I don’t think you can dispute this.  Twitter, blogging, and all of it.

There’s still going to be a role for curators.  I think that aspect of publishing still has value.  At least at first.  But once you’ve established an audience…?   

There’s an awful lot to think about these days.  I know one thing’s for sure—I’m starting to reconsider my position on not creating ebook files.

My father-in-law sends me links from time to time, and I always stop what I am doing because they’re generally fascinating.   Last week, he sent along this link to an Op Ed in the New York Times by John Grisham:

Writing was not a childhood dream of mine. I do not recall longing to write as a student. I wasn’t sure how to start. Over the following weeks I refined my plot outline and fleshed out my characters. One night I wrote “Chapter One” at the top of the first page of a legal pad; the novel, “A Time to Kill,” was finished three years later.

I quote that part, because it’s heartening to know he spent 3 years on a novel.  Sometimes it feels like it will easily take me that long to write my first novel.  But what really fascinated me were all the jobs he worked through his life before he became a writer professionally.  It takes a long time for us to find our callings in life sometimes, and that’s great.  The journey is as much fun as the destination.

I’ll have to write about my job history some time on a Monday post—I’ve had some interesting work experiences over the years, and you’ll never guess which job at which I had the most fun.

Some very fine writing advice

I’m absorbing a lot of writing-related material because of my commitment to building this blog up as a useful resource, with interesting materials.  My creative interests tend to move in cycles, and right now writing is pushing to the forefront.  Intrigued by the title, I read this post by Sebastian Marshall on how he accomplishes so much writing, and it has quite a few useful tidbits scattered throughout.

Try to think of every visitor as an honored guest. If you think of “web traffic,” 15 visitors is disappointing. If you think of 15 people deciding to spend time with you they could spend anywhere, and they’re choosing to spend it with you – they’re choosing to spend their life energy reading your thoughts – that’s very cool and humbling, and suddenly chugging along with 15 readers feels pretty good. I had between 10 and 40 visitors for the longest time. The site is starting to blow up a little bit more, had 746 unique visitors on September 1st and have been above 200 daily visitors consistently recently, but I was pretty honored even when 10 people were stopping by for 4 minutes each. That’s 40 minutes of life energy people are choosing to spend with you instead of somewhere else. Like, that’s pretty humbling. (author’s emphasis)

I’d never read Ozymandias in the right frame of mind until he brought it up here.  It’s now rising to the top of the list of my favorite poems as well.  It’s like a memento mori in word form. Wonderful.

Things are a bit short this week. I haven’t been prowling the web for good content as much as I’d like, but I have been getting plenty of web design done, as well as squeezing out a few words on a new short story.  It’s a balancing act.

Seth Godin recently made even bigger waves than usual in the publishing world recently by announcing Godin’s departure from the traditional publishing system.  It’s an interesting read, half ra-ra piece about his own success, half indictment of the publishing system’ as it stands, and it’s reluctance to change with the times.  A central point Seth makes:

The thing is–now I know who my readers are. Adding layers or faux scarcity doesn’t help me or you. As the medium changes, publishers are on the defensive.… I honestly can’t think of a single traditional book publisher who has led the development of a successful marketplace/marketing innovation in the last decade.

If you’re like Seth and you already know who your readers are, why not cut out the middle man?  It’s probably not a tactic if no one knows who you are, but increasingly, large players like Seth have got to be asking themselves, why aren’t they doing it on their own?  Once again, we learn we live in some interesting times, as far as publishing goes.

You’ve probably already heard the news of his announcement, but just recently he launched his first post-traditional project, and it’s not anything like what I expected.  He’s selling paper workbooks in bundle 5 tied to his latest book, Linchpin called the ShipIt Workbook.  The whole point is to fill them out with pen or pencil.  I’ve heard it often argued that print will survive in special formats, such as books designed as works of art.  Paper workbooks is not one I would have expected, but Amazon has already sold out, so I’m not going to question his methodology on this one.

Don Kenn’s Fantastic Post-It Note Monsters and Ghosts

Don Kenn writes and directs television shows for kids in Denmark. He also draws the most amazing post-it note monsters I have ever seen. Post-It note art seems to be an entire genre/medium of its own, and I imagine some art history MFA student is going to get a great thesis out of studying it in depth, linking it to the alienation of the office environment workforce and what-not.

His character designs remind me very strongly of some of the ghosts in Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.   But it’s all the sea/lake monsters that really captured my heart.  I find something fascinating about the idea of strange, monsterous creatures living just beneath the surface of the waves.

Icons, Icons, Icons

I bookmark the hell out of free icon sets.  Icons are something that gets used in nearly every single web design project in some form, and they can be really time consuming and costly to make custom for clients.  Rather than blow a budget spending so much time on something that generally fades into the background, I like to use freely available sets on the web.  A couple more popped up onto my web designer radar this week. 

The always fantastic Smashing Magazine has brought us the 60 Icon iCandies set designed by IconEden.  They have a very nice glossy, iOS feel to them which might come in handy in the future. 

The second link is another round-up, which includes a bunch of classics as well as a few new ones.  I don’t generally like to bring up round-up posts because they’re usually too packed with resources to be much use or provide much context, and this one is no exception.  A new site to me, instantShift, has this post, 100+ Free High Quality Icon Sets for Web Designers and Developers. It may be worth taking the time to pick through.

So that’s all for this week, link round-up.  If you have spotted something that you think I should cover in an upcoming edition, don’t hesitate to drop me a line with the suggestion via Twitter, e-mail, or the comments.

Freelancer Links

40+ Articles to Help Freelance Designers Find More Work

There is a lot of stuff out there lately for the aspiring freelancer.  I’m starting to do okay with lining up freelance jobs, and I’m not really trying to sell myself, as ultimately I need a fulltime job.  But this stuff is always useful.

How to Become a Freelance Web Developer — Nettuts+

Good tips for people just getting starting out, and some even for those who are seasoned veterans.

Seth’s Blog: How to make money with SEO

Not so much from a freelancer’s point of view but from the point of view of your customers.

42 Questions Every Freelancer Should Ask Their Clients | Freelance Folder

I am poaching some fo these for my client survey.  Good list.

Finding freelance jobs: 6 sites for talented techies | ITworld

I don’t tend to use these sites, instead focusing the freelance I do on referrals, but some of these are new to me.

HTML/CSS/Web Design Links

In the Woods — Examples and Tips for Great HTML/CSS Formatting

It’s easy to forget good formatting when you’re under a deadline or putting in a quick hack.  Taking the time to organize and format your code will help others who come after you.  It’s like the backpacker’s ethos about leaving things the way you found them  in that way.

8 Characteristics Of Successful User Interfaces « Usability Post

Simple, direct, and yet very hard to master.  Great usability article.

Home › The Personal Web Design Degree

An interesting concept.  I want to dig into it more and see if I can find it personally useful, but no time right now.

Essential PHP Techniques for Web Designer and Developers | Desizn Tech

Good PHP tips for the non-experts in PHP.

CMS Toolbox

Trying to decide between CMS tools?  This link will help.

Rule Seven: Composition: putting it all together. | GoMediaZine

GoMediaZine has been running a great series of links on design theory.  This is the latest.

Variable Grid System :: SprySoft

Helps generate a grid system for those sites that rock the box.

How to Spot Quality within Web Design: Examples & Tips

I learned several good points for this one.  These elements separate the great designers from the merely good.

Make an iPhone App Using the Envato API — Nettuts+

I’ve been thinking about trying to make an iPhone App.  I have a bunch of writer tool ideas.  No time though.

TileStack Helps Non-Developers Create Gorgeous Applications

More iPhone app resources.  This might make the programming side much easier.

Graphic Design Tutorials

How to Create a Van Icon in Photoshop — Psdtuts+

I’m not sure that I would ever need to create a VW van in photoshop, but there some good techniques here.

40+ Cartoon Character Illustration Tutorials | Tutorials | Smashing Magazine

My guilty secret– I wish I could draw well enough to be a character designer.  Instead I write them.

Create a Divine Angel Montage in Photoshop — Tutorial9

More solid Photoshop techniques.  The result is something you might find hanging in a goth girl’s bedroom, but still nice.

How to Create a Hellacious Flaming Skull in Photoshop — Psdtuts+

SLAYER RULES!

Create a Feathered Crow Illustration — Psdtuts+

A beautiful illustration, and some good selection technique tips.

Free Resource Links

50+ Sources To Download High-Quality Free Vector Stuff | Showcases | instantShift

I can’t get enough of the free vectors.

New Vector Plus Pack — Floral Deco — Vectortuts+

Really useful floral deco pieces.  Free for any kind of use.

30 Brilliant Typefaces For Corporate Design | Fonts | Smashing Magazine

We never have enough fonts, do we?

MyProFolio

Free for a limited time portfolio system.  Useful for very budget-conscious clients perhaps.

18 Photoshop Brushes To Lighten Professional Designs — TZ

Also, we never have enough photoshop brushes.

270+ High-Res Rough and Grungey Photoshop Brushes

See what I mean?

WordPress Links

10 Exceptional WordPress Hacks | Developer’s Toolbox | Smashing Magazine

Some of these techniques to represent common plugins in your theme could really come in handy.

Using WordPress as a CMS | Nometech.com

CMS, CMS, it’s a magic word meaning “less grunt work for the designer in the long run.”

jQuery/Javascript Links

jCart — Free Ajax/PHP shopping cart

Very nice shopping cart implementation.

Blogging Links

8 Principles for the Modern Blog …at least for 2009 « Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang

Number one:  have valuable content.  Easy to forget when you like talking about your cats.

How to Craft Your Personal Business Model — FreelanceSwitch — The Freelance Blog

This could probably go under freelance, but for some reason I put it in here.  Sorry.

How to make money with a blog

Wouldn’t we all like to blog professionally?

Photography Links

How to Develop Your Photography Skills: 11 steps (with pictures) — wikiHow

A good beginner’s list of tips and methods.

Huge List Of Highly Extensible Photoshop Plugins | 1stwebdesigner — Love In Design

Also something you can never have enough of? Photoshop Plugins.

liteFlick

Another take on streamlining Flickr to maximize the photos and minimize the cruft.  Nicely done.

43 Photography Hacks, Mods And DIY Projects | DIYPhotography.net

For the cheapskate. Or the unemployed.  Or the enterprising inventive sort.   Take your pick.

Science Links

First Tool Users Were Sea Scorpions?

500 million years ago, sea scorpions were smart enough to use snail shells as a reverse aqua lung.  Please god, do not let the octopodes  discover this technique.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Paris liberation made ‘whites only’

The racist side of victory in World War II.  Things that only come to light 60 years later.  Sad.

An Amazing Velociraptor Hunting Trophy

Not so much science as FUCKING AWESOME.  Unfortunately, in the act of capturing this trophy, the owner changed the timeline resulting in the 8 years of the Bush presidency.

Science Fiction Links

Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Stories / Bugs in the Arroyo by Steven Gould

A new story by Steven Gould is always a treat.   And I don’t care what the haters say, I liked the Jumper movie.  My brain got a lot of rest watching that.

Chesney’s “Victorian Underworld” — the secret Victorian underbelly of cyberpunk — Boing Boing

The book that Gibson based criminal culture on in Neuromancer. If that doesn’t make you want to read it, I don’t know what will.  What are you doing hanging around my blog anyway?

Gizmodo — Time Travel Cheat Sheet — Time travel cheat sheet

I am totally giving this to one of hte protagonists in my YA time travel novel.

The Grab Bag

‘Flame War’ Video Lampoons Web’s Potty Mouths | The Underwire from Wired.com

“We Didn’t Start The Fire” lampooning the internet’s flame wars.  Hilarious, and incredibly well produced.

Snowflaking — A Primer | I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

More debt repayment strategies involving snow metaphors.  I can’t convince Sarah to let me do the debt snowballing.  Not that we have any money to pay off debt right now.  Maintain…

aM laboratory

This is a hell of a cool music toy.  It makes drawing with blocks turn into music that almost always sounds good.  I might have been a musician if all instruments operated on this kind of priniciple.

Posts of mine you may have missed:

New Story Online: The Kansas Jayhawk vs. The Midwest Monster Squad (With Exciting Poster Illustration Action)

I’ve released my story from the May 2005 issue of Interzone under the Creative Commons license, and added a cool poster illustration I made for graphic design practice.    Check it out even if you read the story before,  just for the illustration.  I also tried very hard to make it easy to read on the screen as well as on an iPhone.

Twitter Will Murder You While You Sleep

My take on #amazonfail from a broader perspective.   A bit tongue-in-cheek like most of my posts when I am in a good mood.   You should at least get a chuckle from it if nothing else.  Also has one of my better lines of reasoning lately:  “Much like nature abhors a vaccum, the internet abhors an absence of information.”  I am so smart.

The Madness and Genius of John Brown

A meditation on the abolitionist who is so important in Kansas history.  He lived for a period of time in the town my parents live in, Osawatomie (which is not a native american name itself, but a combination of the Osage and Potawatomie names).  I think he’s been painted unfairly in the Kansas educational system.

The Hidden Spring and the Abandoned Hog Farm

I describe an expedition into the wilds of Kansas to look at the ruins of an ancient hog farm atop a hill.  I speculative on the lives of the former owners and marvel at the construction.  Special thanks to my stepfather Mike for taking me there.

Okay, so that’s everything I can dig out of my memory and Delicious.  Stay tuned for more next Friday!