eARCs of Onward, Drake! are available now!

The eARC, or electronic Advanced Reading Copy, is, to the best of my knowledge, an invention of Jim Baen.  Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) are uncorrected, either unedited or not fully edited, limited-run, cheaply printed versions of books.  Publishers have produced them for ages and sent them to reviewers so that reviews of books could appear at the same times as the books themselves.  When Jim took Baen Books into the ebook business, readers started asking an obvious question:  given that you have the book in electronic form well ahead of official publication, why won't you sell us that form?  Jim did what, in my opinion, any sensible businessperson would do:  he took their money.

Thus was born the eARC.

Baen sells eARCs for $15, which is more than the cost of the final, edited ebook.  So, why would anyone pay more to get an unedited version?

Bragging rights:  you will have read the book months before others.

The chance to see the book as the author delivered it; others will see only the final edited version.

Indulging your completist side:  if you want all the states of a book, you'll definitely want this one.

eARCs clearly aren't for everyone, but they are for some.

Oh, yeah, lest I forgot to answer in advance a question I've heard before:  Of course Baen pays authors royalties on eARCs.  Baen, like any reputable publisher, naturally pays royalties on print and electronic versions of books.

Which finally brings me to this book, which I created, edited, and am quite happy with:  Onward, Drake!

For the low, low price of fifteen bucks, you can go to this page on baenebooks.com and purchase the eARC in every major ebook format--with no DRM, and no restrictions on where or how you read the ebook.  You buy the ebook, you get all the formats.  Period.

Wouldn't you like to be among the first to read Dave's new Hammer's Slammers story?  My story?  All the other great pieces in the book?

Sure you would.

So, buy and read this eARC, order the signed limited leatherbound edition (you gotta have that, just for Dave's signature and its limited nature), and pick up the regular hardbound version--a handsome item all on its own--for loaning to your (trusted) friends.

Random walk

Don't you hate fortune cookies that don't provide fortunes? I don't care if the little slip of paper is the most random prediction in the world, provided it meets two criteria:

1) It is an actual prediction.
2) The prediction is about the reader (in my case, of course, me).

I'm still sick, maybe sicker. That sucks, because my mind feels like it's running at slow speed. When I force myself to focus hard, I can escape the slowdown, but at a price.

Tonight, I finished going over the copyedited manuscript of Slanted Jack. The copyeditor did a great job, and I'm pleased with the outcome. By happy coincidence, one of the great folks on Baen's Bar who bought the eARC of the book found a continuity inconsistency with One Jump Ahead. My thanks, oh great and careful reader! I fixed the problem on the copyedited ms., and now the hardcover will be correct. What a great side-effect of eARCs!

From next Tuesday through Sunday I will be attending TED @Aspen, the try-out remote branch of the fabulous TED conference that I have wanted to attend since I first heard about it over twenty years ago. The final email note from the organizers suggests staying off email the entire time; I doubt that will be practical for me, but I will come as close as I reasonably can. I am incredibly excited about the chance to attend. It appears unlikely that I will get into the 2009 conference--though I'm still holding out hope--so this may be my one shot at the conference.

We watched We Own the Night on DVD earlier this evening. Though many things about it were good, on balance it was a downer that often felt as if it were simultaneously formulaic and drifting out of control. I'd also like to suggest to Joaquin Phoenix that he not mumble every line. Of course, he's the one getting millions per film, so what do I know?

Back to a bit more work, then finally to sleep.