Monkey Do, Monkey See

My final college project was a Medieval-style mystical tome containing an allegory using modern artificial life and intelligence as its alchemical ingredients. I bound the book using traditional European bookbinding techniques.

You’ll notice, if you order one of my publications, they’re gp0002 or gp0005 or some such number. Homunculand was the first glyphpress publication in a print run of two, so it’s gp0001. It’s not for sale, but if you come over to my place, you can read it. I hope to someday rewrite it for broader publication. Maybe that edition will be gp00015 or something.

As ashcan season comes upon us, I’d just like to remind everyone that there are a lot of ways to make a book. Many of the indie games of years past have been bound at home, using a variety of loving techniques. Paul Czege’s Acts of Evil is hand-splatterpainted. I believe the first edition of Dust Devils was bound in Matt Snyder’s basement. Paul Tevis’ A Penny For My Thoughts is bound like a patient dossier. Books are not a magical thing that someone else makes. They don’t need to be a particular size or shape. What they need is to look and feel the way your game looks and feels so that it attracts and holds the people you want to attract and hold. Find your way to make that happen.

One of the great things about publishing independently is that you get to make all sorts of decisions about your work on the fly. Some of the most important decisions are financial, and they’re tough. One of the biggest financial decisions you can make is how much to charge. Kenneth Hite once said that Vincent hadn’t printed a price on Dogs in the Vineyard because “money is evil”. Really, it’s so V could change the price whenever he wanted to, since he didn’t know what was going to be a sustainable price. It’s hard to figure out.

Shock: has been $23 up until recently. This is partly because I wanted to make back my investment in a certain amount of time, and to do that I needed a certain number of sales at a certain dollar point. I also don’t like to make prices that end on a $5 mark* — $20 or $25 for instance — because then the price is compared to another product on a dollar-by-dollar basis, as some sort of information commodity, which it isn’t. The Dollar:Fun ratio is hard to pin down. Is Shock: expected to be 1/3 as fun as D&D because it costs 1/3 as much? Or is it unexpectedly three times as much fun, and I should be charging $60 a book? That just doesn’t make sense. The only measure that is worth anything is What The Market Will Bear.

I like bears. Sometimes, they’re not funny. But this one is. Because determining what the market will bear is hard to do in and of itself. Not only will different people pay different amounts for things depending on how much they want it, but your ability as a publisher to determine price point is determined by a number of factors outside of your control: the cut taken from various middlemen, changes in the price of paper, changes in the prices of shipping, and so forth. Then, of course, publicity changes how much people want the product in the first place.

So I’m doing an experiment: I just got a great deal on the next print run of Shock: and I’ve reduced the price to $19. The retail price is going down by more than the price break warrants by itself, but the price break softens the blow some because I wanted to try a lower retail price point anyway, and this means that I can take the same per-unit blow I was going to before, while charging an even lower price. I am hopeful that sales will increase by at least the same percentage as the price break, netting me a greater satisfied audience. If sales increase by more than the price break, then super-awesome: I’m making more money and more people are enjoying the game.

Shock: is available now for $19 from both the Shock: page and Indie Press Revolution.

*Thanks to Ben Lehman for this idea. Who accidentally made a price point at $23 when he started selling Polaris.

Sweet! Shock: is now back in stock at IPR! I should have my own stock by Wednesday and be shipping copies by the end of the week!

Further cool, IPR just got the books and they’re already going out the door. Validatastic!

… wait, no I haven’t. But I really love Winchell Chung’s site Atomic Rockets. It’s all sorts of explanations of how science fiction and space opera stuff might or can’t work. Stuff like laser guns, aliens, and, of course, atomic rockets.

It’s full of old SF paperback covers, rational discussion, and a clear deep enjoyment of the subject matter. Check it!

Good part first!

It’s called Jet Jaguar. Thanks, R!

I went over these cable stops with Scotchbrite (distinct from Scotchlite, the tape) to make them matte. I also brushed the knobs.

It took me forever to confirm that you can do this. You can. That’s a Tektro “cyclocross” inline lever with a bar-end shifter.

It’s not your project unless you bust your thumbnail!

Wrapper’s paradise.

Finally putting on the shifter.

I took it out for a spin today. I’m very happy about it. It’s got a pretty aero position, which is just what I want, I think. It’s pretty short and hoppy. The brakes were a litty rubby, but things are pretty much ironed out now. Nine speeds on a single ring is a bit much (and noisy in the lowest gear), but it works niclely anyway. It’s geard pretty high, but I really like the ass-hauling.

(Part 1, Part 2)

(cont. from phase 1)

The black bike, as it is now. (Note hottie.)

Read the rest of this entry »

OK, let’s see if I’m getting my blog fixed here with a project update.

I’ve been working on this bike for about a month since I found the frame. It came from the basement of Northampton Bikes and they sold it to me for a song, seeing that it was going to a good home. Now, I’ve wanted one of these frames since I was a teenager and I used to ride the MS150 bike ride (which looks to be a much larger event now than it was in 1988 or whatever.). So when I found this frame, I knew this was a golden opportunity. It’s a 1992 r900 with downtube shifters (so quaint!) and short but practical geometry.

I started buying parts for it when I got the frame. I’ve been getting used stuff and trawling Ebay for parts, but it’s still coming in pretty spendy. The project means a lot to me, though, so I’m willing to do what I need to do.

Now I’m going to try my newly upgraded blog’s gallery function. Let’s see if it works! Pics and details follow the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

Not sure what happened to my blog here. I’ll have deliberate styling again soon.

Hey, ever’body, I’m sold out of Shock: for the next couple of weeks. I put in a big order though, so this shouldn’t happen again for a long time. And if it does, well, super fucking awesome.

Under the Bed is in stock, but that’s because it’s hard to play and makes you cry.

Thanks, Judd!