OG’s BLOG

In this week’s Entertainment Weekly (10.30.09) there’s an article in the ReviewsBooks section, which notes that books by some heavy hitters, even some that started strong, have sputtered a bit in the sales department. Most notably, Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol, which started out with 1.2 million copies sold in the first week of release, has dropped in subsequent weeks to 400,000 copies, and then 214,000 the next, according to Nielsen BookScan. Perennial bookseller faves such as Mitch Albom with his new book “Have a Little Faith”, and solid bets like Audrey Niffenegger’s “Her Fearful Symmetry” and Ted Kennedy’s memoir “True Compass” have had similarly low numbers. OK, much lower.

What does this MEAN, the major publishers are asking. Just WHAT!? Heads interviewed for the piece suggested that somehow still the holiday season will see book sales increase as Sure Things like Stephen King, John Grisham and Michael Chrichon have books coming out soon. Whistling in the dark, the slump I noted above doesn’t mean anything. Sure. But the word “recession” comes to mind. We’ll see if people loosen the purse strings toward November and December, eh?

As for me and my fellow wannabe authors, I just thought it was worth noting. If the Big Guys are having trouble selling their books, we may have to work a bit harder on a personal basis with our audiences to be sure we succeed where the majors are failing.

At long last, Legend of Bill is almost out. David Reddick has a great preview of some of the fun stuff he’s including. I’m proud to say I had a hand in not one, but two extra stories in this one, and even did the art on one of ‘em. Stop by Legend of Bill and have a look, and maybe snag yourself a copy!

The latest edition of the Steve Ogden Braincast is up online. In this episode, “Of Lost Robots and a Girl in London”, I talk about how Imogen Heap’s new album Ellipse and Amanita’s new game Machinarium strike a similar chord in me and why they are inspiring me right now. I also backtrack to the previous Braincast to add some thoughts about Motivation, and wax philosophical on the subject of How to be More Creative. Music by Tim Larkin.

Tons and tons of great spaceship art appear at Concept Ships, the “Online Animated Spaceship and Experimental Aircraft Art Magazine”. Go have a look!

Just showing a bit of love to Shane Acker’s film before it goes live in the UK… For a refresher on my interview with Shane, see HERE.

From the “No Duh” Department, this just in: allowing prospective buyers to read sample chapters of a book online increases the chances of sales.

“We know that allowing readers to preview book chapters before buying has a positive impact on both print and eBook sales,” said Russell P. Reeder, President and CEO of LibreDigital, Inc. “In the case of one well-known book publisher, one in three people who browsed decided to purchase the book online. As a result, leading publishers are increasing their use of online previews when planning promotional campaigns for both new and existing book titles.”

No news yet whether the people conducting this research have discovered that the chances of the sun rising increase toward dawn, or that inhaling small amounts of oxygen over the course of a lifetime will kill you, but it’s good that such obvious bits of information are slowly filtering down to the brains of publishers.

Extrapolating – got a game you’ve made? A film you’ve created? A comic you’ve done? Take note.

This is a fun little distraction – Steampunk versions of Star Wars characters.

I love hearing my favorite artists talk about their craft. Up today: Maurice Sendak. Go to Drawn! and hear him talk.

Just when you think a genre or mode of presenting entertainment has seen its day, something comes along to challenge that thought. Take the case of Machinarium. This is a total throwback, a point-and-click adventure game. I can hear the eyes of a legion of hipper-than-thou RealTime 3D twitch game fanatics rolling their eyes, but this thing is really cool. Besides, Machinarium won the Independent Games Festival, so even the gamesnobs recognize that it has merit.

This game was made by the same folks who brought you Samorost and Samorost2, which were very successful indie games distributed online. But Machinarium jettisons the Photoshopped graphics of its predecessors in favor of beautiful, hand-drawn art (in the words of Peter “Tokzic” Hargreaves, who shared this link with me) “As God intended”. Amen.

Machinarium has charm, simplicity, and an engaging world you can get lost in. This is the kind of thing that turns my gears.

UPDATE: Tokzic writes in to inform us – They have a short demo of the game HERE.

The company will be redoing the site soon as they will release this puppy today. HINT: Download it now.

UPDATE, 10/19/2009: I’ve bought the game, and it’s really fun. I must admit at first I thought it was just sort of scribbly and charming and European, but the more I look at the drawings the more beautiful they are. I’m in awe. I’ve drunk the Cool Aid, but OK. It’s really a good game and certainly worth the $20. HINT: Buy it at the company’s website through a secure Verisigned transaction and you even get Thomas Dvorak’s soundtrack for the game in MP3 format, so you can listen to the game even  when you’re not playing. For instance, I’m listening to it right now. Yup. I’m typing to you. But I’m thinking about Machinarium…

Well, with Toy Story 1 and 2 in a theatre near you (limited release) in Glorious Stereoscopic 3D(TM) it was only a matter of time until everyone learned the real reason those films were re-released…Toy Story 3 is on its way! Whet your appetite with a nice interview with director Lee Unkrich now online, as well as the latest trailer, which at least makes me a little more interested than the teaser, which honestly reeked of Overmilking the Franchise. The new TS3 may be overmilking it, too, but there are at least some nice character moments and the hint of a story that might hold together. The trailer does make it seem like TS3 repeats many of the themes, and even some of the moments, from its predecessors – that shot of Woody on his shelf with the slow pullback as Randy Newman’s song “I’ll Never Get Over Losing You” hits its final notes could have been part of either film. But on balance, I’m hopeful for a good film.

I’m a Pixar fan as well as a Toy Story fan, so I’ll be seeing it anyway.