IT AS IS

Hi, Habr!
I am the author of several short stories, the most famous of which is "Volatile solution". I was asked many times, when I write the book (time, two, three, etc.). So, I wrote it. Under the cut is the story of the creation, appreciation and competition. And at the end links to buy the paper version and the preview version is free email.

How it all began

By education I am an applied mathematician (though nowhere mathematics and not applied), and by occupation is a programmer. I once wrote an article for Habra about how bad a development is economically more profitable than good. Fortunately for all, before publication, I read it and realized that the article sad, but the world without it will be a little better. But just to throw out the text not wanted, and I reworked it into fiction story, heavily diluted with images from one little-known works and observations of life. what happened, was greeted surprisingly well.

Inspired by the result, I wrote another story about the same subject. Positive responses I have received even more (but what to say, when I read the comments to the story and personal messages, I have the endorphins from the ears flowed), together with several offers from publishers. Of course, the millions of fees it was not (about the fees it never was, lol), but have the opportunity to publish a book with little or no investment on my part. But more importantly — there are people who want to read it.

The case remained for small — to actually write the book.

Process

I must say, a problem with ideas I never had. Every day in my head are born two to three brand new, displacing were there before. And I began to write for themselves. Almost Lebedev. Drafts and notes are very useful the program Evernote, and chistovich I store in the cloud Ubuntu One in LibreOffice Writer format. Imperceptibly written another story (it inspired me by the way, the song Olga Kochanova heard on Grushenka), and parallel to him a few chapters from the novel "S. T. A. R. T. U. P.".

Then, under the influence of roaming on habré sentiment, turned this. Other written stories I decided not to pay, that more was in the book.

And all the while in the background were written the story "Council of Paris". Don't know how others write, but for me was almost impossible here and so to sit down and write the text from beginning to end. So every time I wrote only what I wanted to write, and then when the fragments accumulate quite a lot, I've combined them into one.

Somewhere in November I had a cunning plan. Being ahead, I will say that cunning plan was implemented the first of January at seven in the morning in full accordance with the plan. Well, to make the picture complete, I will note that cunning plan fits into the plot of the book.

Processing file

When a manuscript (I always write "manuscript", although, of course, I have no letters by hand is not written) was almost ready, got three questions: illustrations, editing and layout.

I accidentally found one strange forum. That is especially important, we have the same vision of the world and love to chart (my favorite artist, no matter how difficult to guess, Asher). Therefore, differences practically not occur. The error was the incorrect setting goals — I originally wanted to have each story and each Chapter has its own picture, a kind of picture book. This did not happen. The lesson I learned — the number and size of pictures is better to install based on the layout to reduce the number of "dangling" rows and "blank" pages. The illustrations took more than a month. At this point I should give a link to artist's portfolio, but he wished to remain anonymous. So just tell him "thank you". You really are great to work with.
To edit your text rather difficult. After writing should take a few days, and better weeks otherwise eye "zamylivaetsya" and don't see any obvious mistakes. Editing was done my good friend, journalist Sophia Zilina. Was caught just the high number of typos and extra commas. This is how the check works in school, only more fun. On the edit error correction and is gone three weeks. The lesson is to give the maximum tested editing the text, and always read the writing aloud.

Layout I did myself. Any special difficulties I met and coped in total for ten hours, including adjustment of picture size and placement of non-breaking spaces.

Publisher

Of all the suggestions I received, I chose publishing on demand Prostobook and did not regret it. "On demand" means that they print a book only when it is in order. If the circulation is large, the price of one instance is higher than in conventional publishing, but for short runs the most. At the entrance to the publishing house comes in the layout of the book and payment for the publication of the author's copy, and the output is a copy in your mailbox and the sale of books in the online store with the payment of the fee for each completed order. Prostobook works quickly and accurately, support promptly replies to all questions, the product quality level printed. In General, if someone has the need to publish a book this way.

Moderation my layout passed the first time just a few hours. A few days later, the parcel with printed owner went on a journey. It would seem that the hard work is done. But then it took...

Russian Post

It is a pity that UFO has removed the blog "I resent". But I still write an article about I had a package and what I felt, trying to get it. Now I can only say that dividing the straight-line distance from the departure point to the destination at the time from the moment of sending till the moment of receipt, I counted 1.5 km\h which Is slightly less the speed of flight of a grasshopper and inspired. But it all ended well, good has vanquished evil and shot in the head, I wrote a total of four complaints, made three phone calls and got my package.

Contest

Initially, I wanted to give books to those who will take Christmas quest but first, the collective consciousness has a mailing address, and secondly, it completely so no one guessed.

So the book "AS IT IS" with the autograph of the author will receive:

the

the
• those who figure out the best decryption of the acronym S. T. A. R. T. U. P. (or S. T. A. R. T. A. P.). The degree of "goodness" will be determined by the number of pros and in my subjective opinion;
the
• he who would guess that means a phone number and SMS text from

the one whose comment to this post will get maximum number of advantages.

Your options please write in the comments. Books I'll send to the winners by Post of Russia as soon as Russian Post will deliver I ordered circulation.

Thanks for doscroll read to the end. Now the most important thing. The promised link: Dmitry Lipkind IT AS IS to buy. Download free no SMS will be exactly a week, simultaneously with the results of the contest.

Well, thanks to abrowser that pointed out typos, encouraged and helped by the Council. I'm sorry if someone forgot.

Adrior, Atv, boh, d43, Deeman, Denkol, DraX, ertaquo, grimich,
Thank you!

UPD.
Forgot to mention, the book is licensed under the CC-BY-NC-ND. If you like it, you can support the author by money transfer to one of the following accounts:
the

the
• WebMoney (WMZ) Z308373224874
the
• WebMoney (WMR) R316631716963
the
• Yandex-Money 41001416912882

If you donate more than 600 rubles or more than $ 20, I will send you a free book autographed. To do this, specify in comments to transfer your email address. If you made a translation for the specified amount and want to get the book, but forgot to specify an email contact me.

UPD2
The results of the competition here. Free download here.

Article based on information from habrahabr.ru