There's no storm here Wil. You spoke your mind in that interview, and if people don't like it, tough shit.

That's how I see it anyhow.

:) Kelly

Posted by: kelsquatch at June 28, 2005 09:47 PM

http://www.yikes.com/~pengo/8bit/

One of the finest Post-It Mosaics ever attempted.

Posted by: UglyRedHonda at June 28, 2005 09:58 PM

I didn't mean a "people are mean and I can't handle it" storm. I meant a "slashdot sends a kajillion http requests per second and kills the server" storm. Turning of comments just reduces the potential server load.

Posted by: Wil at June 28, 2005 09:58 PM

I hate it when that kind of storm happens, good call turning of the comments then Wil. Thanks for clearing that up.

Anyhoo... I thought you answered those Slashdot questions very well. I'm sure you'll get some flack for it however. (Probably from someone in the "Star Wars line")...heh heh heh.

And that post-it thing was pretty cool, I must agree.

But I really loved that Hot Wheels post! Damn, I'm jealous of what the kids these days get to play with. I used to tear up paper to make outlines of road and communities on my livingroom carpet for my hot wheels. I also had some of that flexible orange racing track, but sometimes that was only good for hitting people with and not for racing cars.

I'm feeling my age.... almost 33. Shoot me now.

-Kelly

Posted by: kelsquatch at June 28, 2005 10:23 PM

I still have all my Hot Wheels (and assorted brands mixed in)... and I'm a girl.

Wil, do you still have yours?

Curious,
Kelly

Posted by: kelsquatch at June 28, 2005 10:29 PM

" but TNG was doing it in the late 80s, when digital watches were still a really neat idea."

Cool, a Douglas Adams reference! \o/

Quote from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape- descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

And so the problem remained; lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches."

Posted by: Spunkey at June 29, 2005 05:54 AM

" but TNG was doing it in the late 80s, when digital watches were still a really neat idea."

Cool, a Douglas Adams reference! \o/

Quote from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape- descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

And so the problem remained; lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches."

Posted by: Spunkey at June 29, 2005 05:56 AM

BTW: I wear my digital calculator watch (imported from Singapore, because can't you believe it they aren't sold here anymore) with pride!

PS. Sorry for the double post above.

Posted by: Spunkey at June 29, 2005 05:59 AM

Hi there, Wil.

I appreciated your answers and, I suppose like many others, I appreciate your comments on self-publishing. But I wonder if you miss something that must factor into your success in this arena.

You're famous.

There's nothing wrong with this, of course, but I think it skews your results. If you hadn't had the exposure you've already experienced, do you think you would be as successful? I suggest that for someone who isn't as well known, the results wouldn't be quite as stellar.

I realize your larger point is that, through the self-publishing method, one can control the results more specifically, but I do wish you would have touched on your fame as helping you to achieve your success. Without that, the advice rings a touch too-good-to-be-true.

Sorry, dude.

Posted by: tcv at June 29, 2005 06:23 AM

"I am also a little weird about people who read my blog, or my books, and think we're best friends. Unless your name is Darin, and you've known me since 9th grade, we're not best friends."

Dude! I'm crushed!
You're my only friend!
*sniff*

Posted by: Ignatz at June 29, 2005 06:36 AM

Self Publishing:

Nope, I'm not famous. And I've worked for magazines and gotten my Name in Print that way. But the stuff I've self-published on the web has been a lot more fun, if less lucrative. So I'm inclined to agree with Mr. Wheaton on self-publishing vs the Publishing Machine.

Posted by: perlmonk2 at June 29, 2005 06:46 AM

Being a post-it whore with so many at the ready for my blog ideas, I...LOVE...THAT...MOSAIC! And it just so happened it tied in with a posting I did about Jesus and Elvis art :)

Posted by: Running2Ks at June 29, 2005 07:13 AM

You don't have to be famous to make money self-publishing. You just have to promote it. Wil did have a head-start getting people to read his blog, but I think it was really just his blog that gave him the initial promotion. Anyone can build a blog and gather an audience -- lots of non-famous people have done it.

I used to work for the guy that started How Stuff Works. Before HSW he wrote a guide for teenagers about the "real world". He sent copies to libraries and school. He called radio stations to get interviews. He sent it to organizations that review that sort of books. He wasn't famous at the time but he worked his tail on promoting the book and it was (and still is) very successful.

He talks a little about the economics of self-publishing here. Anyyone can do this. There is nothing special about Wil, except that he has put year of work into being an author.

(oh, and those line following cars don't physically exist)

Posted by: Alan at June 29, 2005 08:49 AM

Regarding self publishing...has anyone tried out lulu?

Posted by: Unearthed Ruminator at June 29, 2005 10:09 AM

Here's a question I would like to know the answer to - does having this blog get in the way of your acting career (as in, are people afraid of you dishing about them in your blog)? As your interview on Slashdot makes clear, you are not afraid to express your opinion about the talent (or lack there of) of Hollywood hot-shots. I don't know how many people in Hollywood really keep up with what's happening in cyberspace, but just the same, I'm interested to know. Thanks!

Posted by: Glib Gurl at June 29, 2005 12:45 PM

Great interview, very thoughtful answers. I was also so pleased to see you like Firefly. As a Big Damn Fan (yes, I frequent Whedonesque), this makes me endlessly happy.

However, I was curious why you mentioned the Firefly DVDs and not the big upcoming movie based on that TV series, "Serenity", especially siince the topic at hand was movies. If even a self-professed geek like you hasn't heard about the movie, then Universal better start cranking the publicity wheels.

Anyway, I can't speak for all Whedonesquers, but just from hearsay I know you have a lot of appreciative fans among Joss' faithful. And don't worry, at the three special advance preview screenings of "Serenity" so far, no one lined up at the wrong theater! (At least on that front, we Browncoats will not seek to emulate certain Star Wars fans, despite Joss referring to some of us as "idiosyncratic".)

Posted by: Carole at June 30, 2005 11:46 AM

I liked that interview alot. The self-publishing thing is something I really want to go for, simply because I like the freedom it would bring so that I can make interesting games (instead of something like "Splinter Cell 6--same game as before, only now with anatomically correct bumpmapped ultra-aliasing!").

I think Wil's fame set him back as much as it helped him, because you have to remember that a lot of people still see him as Wesley Crusher, Starfleet Ensign rather than Wil Wheaton, Writer. So technically, he was probably worse off in the self-publishing world than a regular guy would be doing the same thing, because unlike a normal person, Wil's work would be immediately judged based on his acting career, as indicated by Barnes & Noble and O'Reilly classifying Just A Geek as a Star Trek book. Makes you wonder if they even read it.

It seems as though his writing career is getting over that hump though, so hopefully his next book is met with a little more open-mindedness and actually finds it's way to a bookstore.

Posted by: Quanta at June 30, 2005 01:04 PM

Excellent interview and now I want to see Young Harry Houdini!!!

Posted by: macshaggy at June 30, 2005 06:54 PM

Great interview Wil!! I was lucky enough to get moderator points that day. ;)

Posted by: BGog at July 1, 2005 04:22 AM