It's an interesting time in publishing, and I've just started exploring it myself. (I'll message you about my book!) Amazon has a couple of platforms where authors set their pricing and keep most of the revenue themselves. I have considered it pretty seriously but ended up with something more traditional.
My wife devours those kind of books. Let me know if there is ever anything available on the Kindle. Oh, and my phone says 80% done on the Martian. Definitely recommend it to anyone on the fence.
So this is this book really fiction in the sense that the astronaut has to do some crazy unbelievable stuff? Or is it closer to non-fiction (without actually being non-fiction), in that this could actually happen?
Fiction just means "imaginary events and people," not "unbelievable" events and people. Not to nitpick, but it's important. So most of The Martian is totally believable and as scientifically realistic as the author could make it. I'm sure an aerospace engineer or a planetary scientist would quibble with a few details, but the average reader won't be perceiving fairy tale type moments at all. Think Tom Clancy for a space mission -- I think that's a good ballpark for what this book is like in terms of being reality-based. For those of you reading the book, I have this basic question: *** real spoiler if you haven't started the book, don't click *** Spoiler Everything but everything is covered in some minutiae except his *initial injury* where he was struck by the antenna complex or whatever. Did I miss something? His wounds just magically healed without a stitch, antibiotic, or follow-up discomfort while he works? To me, that's the only weakness and it would have been so easy to rectify that.
Yeah, I think I meant something other than fiction and non-fiction, but you get the meaning. And something akin to Tom Clancy in space? Sign me up!
Spoiler He gave himself stitches and antibiotics for a few weeks - they were all trained in first aid for the mission. The recovery from the injury was just 1 paragraph. He was injured and the very next day went to work, despite the antenna going to his pelvis if I recall?
Spoilers below! Spoiler He toughed it out and carried on. He literally had no choice, not if he wanted to survive. Throughout the novel at lot of his work is done "off camera," or else the story would get bogged down in minutiae. Weir discribes enough of the difficulties confronted in that environment to give the reader a good idea of how incredibly tough it was, and also how the thoroughness of NASA in attempting to make the equipment as "fail safe" as possible, as well as making the various pieces of equipment as compatible as possible, helped tremendously. Yet NASA didn't think of everything that might go wrong. Not by a long shot. And that's one of the paramount reasons to take on these kinds of missions. To discover what you don't know.
B-Bob, no doubt this will make me look dense as hell (and I can be!), but where do I view your message?
If you've already explored this, you no doubt learned about the routine of self-publishing an e-book, but since I've been visiting my sister for Easter, I asked what she does and this is what she told me (for anyone who might be interested). You go to a site called Bowker and publish an ISBN# for $100.00. That gives you a copyright for one work. For $250.00, you get 10 of these, if you expect to publish more than one. The platforms are Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and another well known one that I'm blanking out on because it's 2:20 in the morning. If the work sells for less than $2.99, you get to keep 30%. If it sells for more than that, you retain 70%. In general, most people are hesitant to pay more than a couple of dollars for something from an author they know nothing about. That no one really knows anything about. So frequently works sell for around a dollar starting out. Once you get a reputation, a following, if you will, then people will pay more, and then someone might be able to sell their work for enough to get the 70%. Not terribly complicated, apparently. You need a "cover" for the novel, novella, or short story (helps to sell it - people expect something to see, even on line). If you have someone who can create one for you cheap, great, but generally a cover might run you from $75 into the hundreds. It's up to the author. Considering what some of my Science Fiction Book Club covers looked like in the late '50's and the '60's, it doesn't have to be brilliant, just eye catching. The world of publishing is quickly changing dramatically. I find it a bit sad, because I like to hold a book in my hands, but the trend away from that is definitely strong. I hope those wondering about e-book publishing found this information interesting. -
2nd time someone has offered an unsolicited recommended of this book. will have to check it out. sounds somewhat Crichton-esque?
It's a great book, but it's the first book I've read in a long long time. I just wish the book was even longer, to give time to develop the other characters apart from the astronaut. Also, was I the only one who imagined Scarlett Johansson whenever the Johannsen character was mentioned? :grin:
