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2024.05.19 15:01 ibid-11962 Writing and Publishing Eragon [Post Murtagh Christopher Paolini Q&A Wrap Up #6]
[When I start to write a new book] I have an image. There’s always a strong emotional component to the image, and it’s that emotion that I want to convey to readers. Everything I do after that, all of the worldbuilding, plotting, characterization, writing, and editing—all of it—is done with the goal of evoking the desired reaction from readers. In the case of the Inheritance Cycle, the image was that of a young man finding a dragon egg (and later having the dragon as a friend). [10]
Who's your favorite character to write? Well, for me, it's the dragon Saphira. She's the reason I got into writing a dragon. She came first? She came before Eragon? Like she was the catalyst? The relationship came first, her and Eragon. [33]
I was specifically inspired by a YA book called Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville, which is a delightful book. I just loved that idea so much of finding a dragon egg, I was like, "Well, what sort of a world would a dragon come from?" And I knew I wanted the sort of bond between rider and dragon that Anne McCaffrey had, but I wanted the intelligence of the dragons that you find elsewhere, and the language and the magic. And I wanted sparkly scales because it just seemed like dragons are fabulous creatures and they ought to have sparkly scales. That's the fun thing about writing your own books. You can make them exactly the way you want to make them, and hopefully then that appeals to the audience as well. [30]
All of that kind of was swirling around in my head, and I wanted to write about dragons in a way that kind of combined a lot of elements in a way that, "I like this", and "I like this piece", and "I like this piece", but I kind of wanted to have all these different pieces in one type of dragon, and no one had quite done it exactly the way I wanted. [30]
I live in Montana, and our library is an old Carnegie or Rockefeller library, and especially back in the 90s, it didn't have that many books. So once I read all the fantasy in the library, I thought I had read all the fantasy there was to read. Because I was not the smartest kid in the world sometimes. And I kind of thought, "Well, it's the library. They have all the books that exist, right? All the books that matter are in the library." And I really had no idea what to read after that. So I decided to start writing myself and to try and write the sort of story that I would enjoy reading. And of course, what I enjoyed reading was books about flying on dragons and fighting monsters and having adventures. [35]
Reading and literature was always important in our family. My father's mother was a professor of comparative literature and wrote books on Dante and all sorts of stuff like that. Was the myths and folklore part of your life at this time? Yes, but I should clarify that it wasn't formally introduced to me. It was in the house. People weren't wandering around talking about. It was just like the Aeneid is sitting on the shelf. I would go read things. I have a great uncle. He's 90 now, my mother's uncle. Guy is still sharp as a tack. It's amazing. But he gave me a set of cassette tapes of Joseph Campbell, who did Hero of a Thousand Faces. So that was my exposure to his theories of the monomyth and the eternal hero and all sorts of things like that. That got me very much interested in and thinking about the origins of the fantasy that I was reading because I was reading Tolkien and David Eddings and Anne McCaffrey and Raymond Feist and Jane Yolan and Andre Norton and Brian Jaques, and all of these you know authors who were popular at the time. I was very curious where does this come from. Tolkien, of course, felt like sort of the origin in a lot of cases but then I was discovering that, there are earlier stories that even Tolkien was drawing from. That was really a revelation to me. I really sort of got enamored with it. A lot of fantasy is nostalgic and that appealed to me because I was homeschooled and my family didn't really have a lot of relatives in the area, so I felt very unmoored from the rest of society. I think I was looking for a sense of tradition or continuity with the past and fantasy helped provide that. That's an incredibly articulate thought for a 15-year-old author. Or has that come with age? No, it was something I was feeling at the time. You were conscious of it at the time? Well, listening to the Joseph Campbell stuff, I was looking: Where are our coming of age traditions? Where is the great quest to go on to prove yourself as a young adult, as a man? Where's the great adventure? What do I do in life? Those are all things that are part of the adolescent experience and always have been which is why so many mythic stories about coming of age deal with those questions. I think it's a universal thing. That's why Harry Potter, Eragon, Twilight, all of these have appealed so much because they deal with adolescence. They deal with finding your place in the world as an adult when you're starting as a young adult or a child. [28]
What games have taught you to be a better writer either in creating characters or worldbuilding or plotting even? All of my gaming experience was computer games, video games. One that had a huge influence on me was the old Myst series. Personally I love solving puzzles, so that's the first thing. And also the concept of the series, especially with the second game, Riven, it's all based around people writing books that create new worlds. And you get to go in them and solve puzzles and understand how that world works. And that just tickled every single part of my brain back in the day. Now, I'm going to be slightly unkind here, and I apologize if the author [David Wingrove] is listening to this, but there were a couple of novels based off of Myst. And I was such a fan of the series that I got the books, and I started reading them. And my first thought was, "I could do better than this." And so I decided to rewrite the first Myst novel. And I created a document in MS Word, and I got exactly three sentences into my rewrite. And I thought to myself, "okay, I think I can do this, but I could never sell it. So I better go write something of my own." And the next thing I did was Eragon. So video games kind of had a direct influence on me writing. But actually reading something that I felt was not particularly successful was such an inspiration. Because it was like, "this got published, I know I can at least get to this level." And it was published. And then maybe I can shoot for a little bit higher. [pause] I think some people have had that experience with Eragon. [26]
I had the original idea, the concept of boy finding dragon egg, and I tried writing a couple of very short versions of Eragon when I was fourteen, and none of them panned out so I stopped writing for a while. [28]Real World Version
What do you remember about the early days of writing “Eragon?” Originally, Eragon was named Kevin and the story was set in the real world. But I only finished around 10 pages. [16]Arya Opening Fantasy Version
I wrote three versions of Eragon before I wrote the version that had the unicorn, which was the first major draft. The first version was set in the real world, and that's why he's named Kevin. And the reason it was set in the real world is I was inspired by Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher, which is set in the real world. [32]
I was specifically inspired by a book called Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher by Bruce Coville. By the way, Bruce knows this. If you haven't read it, it's a great book about this young man in the real world who, spoiler, goes into an antique shop and buys a stone that ends up turning out to be a dragon egg. And I really loved that idea of a stone that was actually a dragon egg and the young man becoming joined with the dragon. And so I tried writing the story. And I got exactly five pages or six pages into it and I ran into a brick wall, because a boy finding a dragon egg is a good event, but it is not a good story. And I needed to figure out what was going to happen after that. I didn't know that at first. [36]
But then I was going down the rabbit hole of, "Well, if there's a dragon, where did the dragon come from? What if it were an actual fantasy world where the dragons were native?" And then that led me to then write a second beginning--I didn't get very far with this--that was more of a traditional fantasy story, and it opened with Arya and a couple other elves escaping a dungeon with a big battle, and at the very end of the battle, they send the dragon egg away, and Kevin finds it. But I didn't have the rest of the story, so I stopped writing it in that format. [32]Research Break
So I tried writing a second version of the story. So the first version of that story I wrote was set in the real world. Second version was more of like a fantasy world. [36]
I had the original idea when I was fourteen. I even wrote an early version of the story where it was set in the real world. But I soon realized that it was a lot more interesting to have a dragon in a fantastical setting. [8]
I tried writing before and I always failed because I would only get like four to six pages into a story and then I didn't know what to do next. And that was because I didn't actually have my story. All I really had were the inciting incidents, like a boy finds a dragon egg in the middle of a forest. Great. But that's not a story, that's just one event. What happens as a result? So before starting Eragon, I was very methodical about this. I read a whole bunch of books on how to write, how to plot stories. [35]Unused Arya Outline
I realized I wasn't getting anywhere. And I didn't know how to do what I was trying to do. Now, fortunately for me, my parents had noticed that I was getting interested in writing. And all of a sudden, books appeared in the house. There was no comment, no one forced it, these just magically appeared, and I read them. Some of the books that were incredibly helpful to me were these books that were called The Writer's Handbook, which was a collection of essays published each year by The Writer's Digest magazine. I had one from 1998, and I had one from, I think, 1993, or something like that. And there were essays from Stephen King and John Grisham and I think Ursula Le Guin and all sorts of other authors about what it was like to be an author both professionally and creatively. And that was incredibly helpful to me because again, the internet was not a resource. But the book that really made the difference for me was a book called Story by Robert McKee. It's a book for screenwriters and it's all about the structure of story. And up until that moment, I had never really consciously thought about the fact that stories have structure and that you can control that structure for the effect on the readers. So I devoured that book and I said, okay, I'm going to try this again. [36]
Did you very much sit down and study structure and character development and etc? I did. It wasn't a formal course or anything, it's just that my parents started buying these books and they started showing up. In fact, I still have them here on my shelf. This bookcase to my right is full of research books, technical books, language books. I read a book called Story by Robert McKee, which is a screenwriting book, that was and often has been very popular in Hollywood. It's a fairly technical look at story structure. I would never say do everything he says because of course you shouldn't necessarily follow any one formula, but that book really got me thinking about the fact that stories do have structure, which I hadn't really thought about before that. And that one can control that structure, and that this gives you something to work with. Before Eragon, I tried writing a number of stories and I never got past the first four to six pages, ten pages, because I never had the plot. All I would ever have was the inciting incident which, in the case of Eragon, is a young man finds a dragon egg. Ok, fine, but that's not a story. So when I read that book, then I was like wow, so I can control the structure of this. [28]
The problem with all of my early writing was that I’d get an idea and just start — I didn’t actually have a plot. But I was a pretty methodical kid, so I started reading about how to write. Fortunately, my parents are observant, and these kinds of books magically began appearing in the house. And I read all of them. [16]
So at this point, I was 15, that's when I graduated from high school and I was very methodical about it because I hate failing. So I said, okay, I'm going to create a fantasy world. And I did that. And then I said, I'm gonna plot out an entire book in this fantasy world. And I did that too. And then I said, but I'm not gonna write this. This is just a thought exercise. I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna stick it in a drawer. And I still have that to this day, that world and that story, I still have it sitting in a drawer somewhere. [36]
Then I spent some time and I created an entire fantasy world and I plotted out an entire fantasy novel in that world and I did not write it. I just stuck it in a drawer and that's where it's been sitting for 25 years now. And then I just did that to prove to myself that I could plot out an entire book. [35]
Before writing Eragon, again I was very methodical even as a teenager, I created an entire fantasy world. Wrote pages and pages about the worldbuilding, and then I plotted out an entire story in that world just to prove to myself that I could plot a story, create a world, and then I didn't write it. I put it aside. I still have it all saved. Put it in a drawer. [28]
And then I decided okay now I'm going to plot out a trilogy, because all great fantasy stories are trilogies. I'm going to do it as the heroic monomyth, because that is, at least my understanding back then, is this is one of the oldest forms of stories. I know it works on a general sense. It's going to give me a safety net, and then I'm going to write the first book as a practice book just to see if I'm capable of producing something that's three, four, five hundred pages long. And that's what I did. That was about two and a half months of worldbuilding, plotting, creating this. Then I wrote the first book and that was Eragon. That was my practice book. I never actually planned on publishing Eragon. It was only after I'd put so much work into it and my parents read it that then we proceeded with it. I was aware of story structure. I continue to read lots of books on it. [28]The First Draft
And then version three is the version that everyone generally knows. And that's where I spent the time to plot out the whole series before writing, because having a idea of where you're going seems to help with the writing, at least for me. Usually. [32]
I originally saw Eragon as a practice novel, which is part of why it’s a very typical hero’s story. I knew that structure worked and it gave me the safety net I needed. [16]
The first draft went super fast. It went really fast because I had no idea what I was doing. And I just wrote that sucker. I wrote the first 60 pages by hand with ballpoint pen, cause I didn't know how to type on a computer. And then by the time I typed all that into the computer, I knew how to type. I did the rest in the computer. But this was back in the day when computers were fairly new. We had a Mac classic, which only had two megabytes of RAM. And the problem is that the operating system chewed up some of that memory. And my book file was around two megabytes large. So I actually had to split the book into two because I couldn't open the whole file on the computer or the computer would crash. So I had to open half the book and then close that and then open the other half. [35]
Once I finished the first draft, I was super excited and I thought, "well all of these things on how to write say that you should read your own book and see if there's any tweaks you wanna make." But I was really excited because I was getting to read my own book for the first time, and I thought this is gonna be awesome. And it didn't take very long while reading it to realize that it was awful. It was horrible. And just to give you an idea of just how bad that first draft was, in the very first draft of Eragon, Eragon wasn't named Eragon, Eragon was named Kevin. And there was also a unicorn in that first draft at one point, so you know it wasn't very good. [35]Releasing the Kevin Cut
If I heard correctly as I was reading, Eragon wasn't originally called Eragon? No, in the first draft of the book he was called Kevin. There's a reason! Look I have an explanation for it, okay. The explanation is that my original inspiration was Jeremy Thatcher Dragon Hatcher which is set in the real world. The original version of Eragon that I was developing was set in the real world and when I decided that it would make more sense to have a world where the dragons were native to and switched it over to this fantasy world and began to develop that, I just kept the name that I'd been working with, which was Kevin. Naming a main character is hard, especially when you get used to a certain name. I don't want to say I was lazy. I want to focus on the world building and writing the first draft and I'll worry about the name later. [28]
There is an early version of Eragon that no one's seen, that even my editor at Random House never saw. And that was my first draft. And in that first draft, Eragon encountered a unicorn in the Beor Mountains on the way to the Varden. And the unicorn touches him and essentially affects the transformation that he goes under during the blood oath ceremony with the elves in the second book, in Eldest. And his whole storyline with the Varden once he gets to Farthen Dûr is completely different because now he has these abilities and he and a team of people ends up getting sent on a scouting mission in the dwarven tunnels to go find the Urgal army and then they have to flee back through the tunnels to warn everyone of this huge army and I had a underground cave full of lava, and multiple shades, and a huge Urgal army. There was there was a lot of dramatic stuff. Finding the Ra'zac in Dras-Leona was completely different. This is the draft where Eragon was named Kevin. [32]
I haven't thought about that version in ages. I think Arya was awake all the way from Gil'ead to Farthen Dûr in that version. That's right, I had to completely rewrite that. It's an unpleasant ride for her. No, no, no, she was awake and healed. She was awake. That's right, God, I had to rewrite most of the last chunk of the book now that I think back, it's been a long time. [32]
The worst thing is, I think Kevin would actually take a larger budget [to adapt to film]. No, stop. Why would Kevin take a larger budget? Because the battles were bigger, there was more stuff going on. Seriously, there were more creatures, more travel. Yeah, I think Kevin would actually take more money than Eragon. [32]
You said that Eragon's name was originally Kevin. Was Eragon's name originally Kevin? It was. And I really regret I didn't stick with it because I think that as many books as I've sold, the series would have been at least twice as successful if it had been about the adventures of the great dragon writer Kevin. Especially just seeing Kevin on the front cover. Imagine the appeal to the modern youth. Kevin the dragon writer. I mean Eragon, it's confusing with Aragorn. Oregano. Oregon. But Kevin, Kevin stands out, Kevin's original. That's why I had to move away from it. [31]
So do you wanna share some of those drafts with us, Christopher? Just kidding. Well, I actually had a fan reach out to me. He's one of the big members of the online fan community on Reddit and elsewhere. And he's kind of interested in some of these early versions from almost an archivist point of view, a scholarly point of view. Which is certainly an interesting idea. I mean, there is an early version of Eragon that no one's seen, that even my editor at Random House never saw. ... I cannot describe how much the Internet absolutely needs for you to put out an edition of Eragon that just says Kevin. Should this be like Mistborn or Way of Kings Prime? This is the Kevin edition of Eragon. The Kevin cut. Oh my god. It's "Eragon: Kevin's Version". ... We absolutely need Kevin's Version of Eragon. That's something we need. It's bad. It's bad. Look, there are certainly people who can look at Eragon, the version we have now, and say, "we can tell this was a younger writer." I look at it and I can tell. I could do so much more now with the material than I could then. But if you think that about the published version of Eragon, man, if you saw the unpublished version, the early version, it really is the raw writing of a homeschooled 15-year-old, who wrote a 500 page book about Kevin. I don't know, the internet is very unhinged these days. They would love this. It needs to exist somewhere on the internet. [32]
So I wrote Eragon, and then I read the first draft and it wasn't particularly good, so I spent a good chunk of a year rewriting it as best as I could. I didn't know what I was doing but I was trying. I've heard it said that being displeased with your own work is actually a good thing because it means you know what is good work, and if you're not happy with your work because it's not good, it means you could at least have a goal to shoot for. If you read your work and you're like this is the best thing that's ever been written, you're never going to get any better. [28]Self-publishing
But I could see that the book needed work, so I decided to try to fix it as best I could, and I spent the better part of that year revising, rewriting, changing Kevin to Eragon. And then I gave the book to my parents and fortunately for me, they actually enjoyed what I had done. And they said, we think you have something, let's try to take it out into the world and see if anyone else wants to read it. [35]
[We] decided to self-publish the book as a joint venture since we didn't know anyone in the publishing world. That was again a good chunk of a year where we were editing the book as best the three of us could. Preparing it for publication, formatting, I drew the cover. [28]Promotion
Now you have to understand, my parents were always self-employed, have always been self-employed and we were always looking for things we could work on together as a family business. And Eragon was like the perfect opportunity for that. They'd had some experience self-publishing a couple of small educational books my mom had worked on. Because she was a trained Montessori teacher, and so she was trying to use that expertise to write some material herself. But I don't even think we sold 100 copies of those. So we spent another good chunk of a year preparing the book for publication with doing more editing, doing the layout, designing the cover. [35]
The first set of 50 books showed up while we were watching Roman Polanski's Macbeth, which seemed fitting because those first 50 books were all miscut from the printer. And as a result, we had to rip the covers off, send them back for credit from the printer, and then burn the insides of the books. So we had a proper book burning in our yard, and I actually saved some of those burnt pages just as a memory of that event. [35]
Self publishing wasn’t as viable then as a pathway to a career as an author as it is today. Why did it work for you? Everything completely changed because of e-readers. If you wanted to read an e-book, you had to have a PDF on your computer. There were no distribution systems like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Back then, the lowest amount you could print and not have the book be too expensive was probably about 10,000 copies. But we were fortunate because print-on-demand had just become a thing, so books were just printed as needed. Self publishing is a lot easier these days. Of course, today’s marketplace is a lot more crowded as a result. [16]
My family and I were going around the western half of the United States with the self-published edition of Eragon. I was cold calling schools, libraries, and bookstores to set up events. I was doing two to three one-hour long presentations every single day for months on end at various times. You have to understand that because my parents were self-employed, the time they took to help prepare Eragon for publication was time they weren't working on other freelance projects that would have been bringing in money. So by the time we actually had Eragon printed and in hand, if it had taken another two to three months to start turning a profit, we were going to have to sell our house, move to a city, and get any jobs we could. Because of that financial pressure I was willing to do things I probably would have been too uncomfortable to do otherwise. Like doing all those presentations. [28]Getting traditionally published
We were doing a lot of self-promotion. I was cold calling schools and libraries and talking them into letting me do presentations. And that worked pretty well because the librarians could take pre-orders for us. If we went into a bookstore, by hand selling, I could maybe sell anywhere between 13 to 40 books in a day. 42 was like the best I ever did, but usually it was around 15 or so books, which just didn't cover printing costs and travel and food and all of that. But going into the schools, we were doing about 300 books a day, which was excellent. [34]
Can you tell me a little bit about how you and your family self-published the first Eragon book and what marketing strategies you did? Oh, it was all nepotism, you know. I wouldn't have gotten published without my parents. There's nothing as powerful as a publishing company that's four people sitting around a kitchen table in the middle of rural Montana. So yeah, without Nepotism, I wouldn't have gotten published. You have to embrace something like Nepotism if you really wanna succeed in today's world. In fact, people don't realize that you actually get a Nepotism card. There's a secret club. You go to New York and there's huge network opportunities. There's branches of the club everywhere, especially strong in Hollywood, of course, in music. Taylor Swift is an example. So if you can get into the nepotism club, I won't say you're guaranteed success, but you got about 80% chance of actually making it that you wouldn't have otherwise. Do you think your mom and dad would be willing to be my mom and dad? No, absolutely not. No, no. You don't have brown hair, so it doesn't work. You have to have brown hair to be a Paolini. Okay, I'll try to find a different way in, I guess. [31]
So you were very much looking for that partnership? Well we were wary. But the thing is is we were selling enough copies of Eragon that to scale it up we were going to have to start duplicating all the things that a regular publisher does. We were actually looking at partnering with a book packager or a book distributor just to get more copies out. To do everything a traditional publisher could do for me was a huge amount of work so it made sense to pair with Random House or someone else at that point. But it was still nerve-wracking because the book was being a success and then handing it off to another company, we didn't know if it was just going to end up in the remainder bin two weeks after it came out. [28]Gaining Confidence
People in the book world were starting to take notice because of course, if you've been to public school, you may remember the Scholastic Book Fairs and all of the Scholastic reps in the different schools were seeing me come to the schools and selling these books and hearing the kids talk about it. And it was getting attention. So we would have gotten a publisher, I would have gotten a publisher eventually. [34]
The book sold enough copies and bounced around enough that we'd heard that Scholastic—because Scholastic does all the Book Fairs in schools in the US—was interested and that we might get an offer from them. Before that happened though... [34]
Eventually another author by the name of Carl Hiaasen ended up buying a copy of the self-published edition of Eragon in a local bookstore. Which now that I'm older, I'm rather shocked at because it takes a lot to get me to buy a self-published book. It's got to look really good. [35]
Carl Hiaasen wrote the young adult book Hoot as well as many adult books. He comes up to Montana, I think he's got a vacation home here in the valley, but he was up here fly fishing and he bought a copy of Eragon for his then 12 year old son, Ryan. And fortunately for me, Ryan liked the book and Carl recommended it to Random House and it sort of bounced around among the editors for a couple of months before my editor-to-be grabbed it and said, "Yes, we will. I want to take a chance on this teenage author and we're going to offer him money for a trilogy that only exists in his head and see what happens." [34]
How did you find an agent? We had the offer from Random House, and like two days later, we had the offer from Scholastic. And so we knew we didn't know what we didn't know. My dad participated in some online self-publishing forum sort of thing. So he posted up a question and said, look, this is the situation we're in. Does anyone have any advice? And another one of the members said, "well, I was just at this publishing writing conference and there was this young agent there and I was really impressed with his presentation, or him talking about the industry." So my dad got his information online and did what you're never supposed to do, which is he called the agent directly and left this long rambling voicemail message because it was lunchtime in New York and you take your lunch breaks in New York. And only at the end of the message did he say, "oh, yes, and by the way, we have two competing offers from two publishing houses." And when I asked him, I said, "why did you do that?" He said, "well, because if he's any good as an agent, he's going to listen to the whole message before he deletes it." And we found out later that he nearly deleted the message. Because my dad started off like, "I got this teenage son, and he's written this book", and yeah, that, OK. So it was like two hours later we got a call from Simon. And Simon said overnight me a copy of Eragon and if I like it I'll represent you. And Simon has been my agent for 21 years now. [34]
It was a big risk for Random House. And it was a big risk for me because the book was successful, self-published, and we knew that giving it to a publisher, you lose the rights to a degree, and most books don't turn a profit, and it could have just ended up in the remainder bin. So what really worked in my favor is that Random House, and specifically Random House Children's Books, and specifically the imprint of Knopf, which is where I'm at were looking for their own Harry Potter, essentially. Scholastic was publishing Harry Potter. And Scholastic also gave me an offer for Eragon, but I could tell that Random House was the one that really loved the book and Scholastic was doing it because they thought it was a good business opportunity. Scholastic actually offered more money than Random House. But I went with Random House and it was the right choice. And I found out after the fact that Chip Gibson who was the head of the children's department at the time basically chose to use Eragon as sort of something to rally the troops and put the entire children's division behind it, and I was the very fortunate recipient of that love and attention. Which of course would only get you so far if people didn't enjoy reading the book. But fortunately for me, they did a great job marketing it and then people actually enjoyed the book. Which is why when people ask me how to get published, it's like, what am I supposed to say? The answer ultimately is you write a book that people want to read, and that's a facile answer, but it is true. If people want to read it, it makes everything else easier. The agent wants you, the publishers want you, and ultimately the public wants you. [34]
And I didn't realize how much was behind that email, because large publishers do not just casually say, "hey, we want to publish your book". There was a whole plan there, and they had a plan. And so they did. Eragon came out and then I had to figure out how to write a book with everyone expecting the sequel. [36]
So you kind of went and peddled your books at schools, as I understand, right? It seems to have paid off though, because it eventually landed in the hands of bestselling author Carl Hiaasen, but not right away. First, your book got in the hands of his stepson, and the kid liked it so much that he told Hiaasen about it, who then got Eragon fast-tracked with Penguin Random House. I really admire the way that you went for the weakest links, manipulating the minds of our youth and using them to shill your book for you. It's a tried and true marketing strategy from Girl Scout Cookies to coupon books, and I applaud you for your ingenuity. My biggest question here is, do you pay Carl Hiaasen's stepson the agent royalties he so rightfully deserves? He tried to collect one time, but I had to hire a couple of guys to drive him off. But, no, you always go for the weakest link. Back when I was self-published and all that I even tried to get Eragon reviewed by Entertainment Weekly, so I called up the subscription number on the back of the magazine and told them I'd made a mistake and asked them to transfer me over to corporate, and managed to get right to their book reviewer and tried to talk him into reviewing Eragon. So you always go for, as you said, the weakest link. Which is corporate. Ryan, Carl's son, though, yeah, I probably owe him a ridiculous amount of royalties. I'd say so. He made you. Oh, he did, absolutely. Without him, I'd be nothing. I guess the lesson here for aspiring authors is that it's not really about finding your target audience, necessarily. You just have to find your target prolific author's stepson and let the kid take it from there. Yeah, absolutely. As I said, that's part of the nepotism package. The sort of networking inside the industry. This is the stuff that you can never access otherwise, and you'll never get published otherwise. So it's not like you can just grow up in the middle of nowhere in Montana, self-publish a book, and then just become a success, by promoting it. You have to have connections. That's genius. I think you could have had an incredible career in designing loot boxes for mobile games based on how good you are at manipulating the world. Absolutely, microtransactions are God's work. [31]
Was anxiety something you felt moving to this deal with Random House? Was that quite pressuring? Yes, it was a big change to go from writing for yourself as a teenager, homeschooled, living in the middle of nowhere, to knowing that there was a large audience for your next book and that they had expectations. I got criticized quite a bit, critiqued quite a bit when Eragon came out for, shall we say, my lack of experience on the technical side of things with the writing. I'd say some of those were certainly fair critiques. The great advantage of youth is that you don't know how difficult things are and you have a lot of energy. The great disadvantage of youth is you don't have experience, and there's no fixing that aside from time and effort. All of that was definitely in my head when I really started work on Eldest and it was pretty nerve-wracking quite honestly. [28]
When you finished the book, I mean your parents believed in it obviously. Did you too? Or were you like, "You know what, maybe the second book, maybe go all in on the second one?" I didn't feel like I was actually an author until my third book was published. Because the first one, well, that could be a fluke. Well, the second one, yeah, but you know. But once the third book came out, then I was like, okay, maybe I'm actually a writer. But even then, even after I finished the series, I still felt like, okay, now I have to write something that's not Eragon, just to prove that I can. So every book has been its own challenge and has been a way for me to keep feeling like I'm growing as an artist and learning to become a better and better writer. [2]
It took me, I wanna say almost 10 years to feel like I wasn't an imposter and that it wasn't just gonna get yanked away. You know what my dream was when Eragon was was going to get published by Random House? Like this was my pie in the sky because I didn't think it was going to happen. But this was my dream. I did all the math and I was like, man, if I could somehow someday sell 100,000 books, which is impossible. But man, if I could sell 100,000 books, that's a darn good living. Man, I could really make a living off that. I could support a family and 100,000 books. Man, that'd be amazing. And then it kind of took off from there. [33]
2024.05.19 11:48 Nancy48236 Trailmaster Milano 50 N 50cc scooter review
Ordering a scooter online is a bit of a risky adventure, especially when you review the terms and conditions and the return policy. But, you have to agree to it to be able to place the order. Less risky is buying at a dealer, but you pay a significant premium for the product. I've read horror stories online about folks receiving junk and even non-operating scooters. That is a possiblity, and with the terms to which you agree, very risky. submitted by Nancy48236 to scooters [link] [comments] We were lucky, though, with Family Go Carts (FGK) and the Trailmaster Milano N 50cc scooters. I ordered, online, two Trailmaster Milano N 50cc scooters from FGK - one for me, one for my husband - on May 1, 2024. We received the scooters on May 18, 2024. Considering US shipping demand, that is a reasonable time to delivery. The lady at FGK who called me to coordinate the delivery was kind, and gave instructions on how to receive and prepare for the first run (ie. Change oil - upon arrival, the engine has shipping oil in it). Shipping: "Free", but you have to pay access fee and lift-gate fee. Not too bad considering how shipping rates have skyrocketed in the last few years. She asked for our second choice in colors. Thankfully, we got our first choice - light blue and white for me and black and white for my husband. Unpackaging: Remove cardboard (there's no bottom to the cardboard). Just cut down the cardboard at any one of the corners, then walk around the steel skeleton shipping cage. Then you'll take off the top of the steel shipping skeleton. Undo all bolts and nuts on the bottom. You'll also have to undo the two bolts on the top that attach the steering column fork to the steel cage. Then, just tip off the cage on one end (front end or back end - doesn't matter. Don't tip off from the side; you'll damage the bike), and continue tipping it off to the other end. Assembly: No instructions for it. Some assembly is a no-brainer, but the handlebars and front wheel require explanation. Thankfully, someone posted a video on the assembly of Trailmaster Milano: https://youtu.be/rMyJEkH3b4U?si=VRcDlm2-jIvNNGfC , I couldn't have done it without that video. Handlebar assembly: First, just get the bolt in - front to back, with the curvey part of the washer against the column and between the column and the bolt head. Notice you can't get to the nut on the backside (unless you have 6" fingers of a contortionist). Don't worry like I did. Get the bolt in, assemble the front wheel, then come back the the handlebar column. Turn the bars far to one side. Now you can reach the backside of the bolt and add the nut. We added blue Loctite to the axle and the steering column/handlebar threads for the nuts. Make sure you connect the blinkers. Trial and error to get left blinker coordinating with left blinker connector. Two trials if unlucky - not too bad. You'll still have one body-based connector without a mate. Again, don't worry like I did - that's for the headlight. You'll assemble that later. Front wheel assembly: The front wheel assembly is best with two people. I don't know how one could do this part without another person. First goal is to get the scooter out of the steel shipping skeleton and on flat ground so you can support the scooter on its center stand. Get the scooter out of the remaining base of the steel shipping skeleton. This will require some muscle and two persons. Remove the front axle bolt that holds the scooter by its front fork to the base of the steel shipping skeleton. One straddles the scooter while keeping the front lifted up (shaking up and down) while the other wiggles out the bolt axle which is holding the front fork to the base of the steel (cheap, low-grade extruded steel) shipping skeleton. Once the bolt axle is removed, with muscles, one straddles the scooter while keeping the front lifted up and carefully walking through the steel cage bottom while the other person helps with lifting the front. Roll it out of the bottom of the shipping cage - carefully because you don't want to drop it. It's not a smooth roll out, eiter. Then, once on firm, flat ground, get the scooter center stand down so the scooter rests on that on flat, solid ground. We ended up balancing the frame of the scooter on a block of wood, then putting the center stand down. Now, work on the front wheel. Slip the silver-colored, stainless axle bolt spacer into the wheel's disc side. It's frustrating getting the wheel on because you have to get the brake disc lined up with the brake pads (remove the pad spacer put in for shipping and toss it) on the port side of the scooter and the speedometer on the scooter's starboard side correctly lined up with the wheel and fork, ALL that simultaneously while getting it lined up to insert the axle. Fun times! You may end up with assembly partners snapping at each other and swearing - a lot. Persistence and patience and it will get done. Add blue Loctite for final tightening on the axle/lug nut. Oil change: Drain out all the shipping oil. There's a lot in there. After draining, we added about two cups of 15W40. Check the dip stick to make sure your oil level is adequate. Headlight and front cowl assembly: Connect the headlight to the body-based headlight connector. Use the included zip ties to secure all the wires out of the way and neatly, without putting too much strain on any connections. Make sure you put the U-shaped, color matched plastic cover (in horizontal plane) separating the handlebars speedometer instrument from the front cowl. Snap it into the tabs. THEN, attach the front headlight cowl to the body. Don't do like I did - get the headlight front cowl section on then try to snap in the cover. I had to remove the headlight front cowl, snap in the color-matched cover, then re-attach the front headlight cowl. Topcase/trunk: Best with two persons, but can be done with one. Big enough for a half helmet, gloves, goggles, wallet, and other little things. Looks good on the scooter, too. Battery installation: This can be tricky. You have to have a square nut below the terminal screw. If you put the battery in the scooter and try to get those nuts under the terminal, you won't be able to do it. If you just try to balance the square nuts on the battery while dropping the battery into the scooter's battery compartment, the square nuts fall off. We decided to secure the nuts to the battery terminals with a half-turn of the terminal screw. Then drop the battery in and complete connections. First, connect the black, then connect the red. The batteries we received were fully charged. Moment of truth: Put premium gas in the tank. Since the carburetor is empty, you'll have to let the starter work a bit to get gas flowing into the engine. It didn't even require three total minutes to get it started. Run the starter for about 30-60 seconds, stop, repeat. Three times and it started right up. Whew. Let it run for a while. Both scooters had a good idle speed and sounds like the aifuel mix is spot on. One sees many horror stories about buying Chinese scooters online from dealers. And, those stories are bad. As I said above, you have to agree to the terms and conditions before you can buy. Those terms and conditions put almost all the risk on the buyer, not the dealer. So, know what you're getting into. But, thankfully, FGK did well. We received both Trailmaster Milano N 50 scooters in a timely manner, without damage, and the scooters fired up right away. Finally, registration of your scooter in your state: My state, Virginia, requires registration of 50cc scooters so you can display the required license tag on the back. To register, you need a title. You don't get a title from this dealer. But, you get enough documentation from the dealer (manufacturer's transfer document, invoice, bill of lading) where you can fill out an easy affidavit for title. Get it notarized and submit with your title application and registration. Pretty easy and far easier and quicker than waiting for the dealer to do it for you, IF the dealer is willing to do it for you, that is. I didn't even ask FGK for their title transfer document, so I can't comment on their responsiveness to such a request. I did the easy work-around at the DMV. So far, so good. I've gotten it up to 32 MPH (speedo reading, not GPS-confirmed), and that wasn't at full throttle. I live in a hilly area, so that 32 MPS was on a relatively flat area with a very slight downhill grade. The inherent four-stroke power situation is obvious on our steep hills, but that's life with a four-stroke. I'm still being careful with getting to full throttle until the engine has a bit of time to break in. I am aware that we will have to wrench these scooters from time to time. That's the price trade-off for a low-cost Chinese scooter. We are willing to pay this price. Thanks to so many videos available online about how to work on the 139QMB GY6 50cc engines, I think we can do this. (Edit to add: I attached a brown leather drink holder to the steering bars, just below the speedometer instrument, using a black velcro strap with a D-ring.. So, that's what that brown thing is - a drink holder. Perfect size for a cafe-bought coffee or a can of soda. It has some insulation, too, like any can cozy. It's made by Hide-and-Drink and available on Amazon. And, ONLY take a sip when you are stopped.) https://preview.redd.it/unip4ckjuc1d1.jpg?width=1131&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bc52d30b7d9f3a0a8c1348588a3803a1ffd73faa https://preview.redd.it/m8koy9mkuc1d1.jpg?width=450&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b7f8fe30c91245f238c8793bf3c2d1ee77e41285 https://preview.redd.it/ldyeq1fluc1d1.jpg?width=450&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ac9ccb34732b0eab4cc1d8532b713da65f62c80 |
2024.05.19 11:06 Alarmed_Reference_66 Habsburg for All !!!!
submitted by Alarmed_Reference_66 to eu4 [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 11:04 Ok_Beautiful5429 MMW: If DJT is elected, Democrats will refuse to certify the election and/or BLM and Antifa will riot and burn until he's forced out
2024.05.19 10:36 Glittering-Ad5648 RRHOF rankings UPDATE!
2024.05.19 10:11 psi_overtake End Game Bloodied Stealth Commando Build
2024.05.19 10:04 Crafty_Sample1682 Maplestory (GMS and MSEA) Monster Life Discharge Macro using G HUB Lua script
2024.05.19 09:33 Dunatos_ Full, Draftable Custom Set based on the show "DOTA: Dragon's Blood"
2024.05.19 09:26 UnderstandingHuge13 Thinkpad L440 With Windows 11
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2024.05.19 09:07 Trick-Caramel3727 so u spinning back or is YBG gonna handle ur lightwork
submitted by Trick-Caramel3727 to jasontheweenie [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 08:50 Smalltwat N! O?
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2024.05.19 08:35 Heroman3003 Taking Care of Broken Birds [Part 3]
2024.05.19 08:22 jmeyer2030 Early Game AFK Emerald Farm
2024.05.19 08:19 Glitch109 [Crossover Worldbuilding Idea] What if the MCU, DCEU, MonsterVerse, Resident Evil (Capcom Games), Avatar: The Last Airbender, Netflix's The Dragon Prince, Vivziepop's Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss, and Live Action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are set in the same universe?
2024.05.19 07:47 Vivi_iomx I need help
Hi. I’m an 18 year old female, I have been in a relationship for about 1 year and 4 months. I really need advice on what to do about my boyfriend as it’s been a fucking nightmare honestly being with him and his shit, he rarely wants to spend time with me and always has some shitty excuse on why he can’t. I know this is a stupid excuse for why I am considering ending things, but it constitutes for me that he is either just slowly leaving me or cheating. Last night, he texted me high or something about his mom and my child which we aborted last summer and just told me so many things and told me I am the only person who cares. This frustrates me as I was there for him and I later after I told him these things in the message he told me he regretted it. I understand that I might of made him feel this way, be he never asked about my child when I had to undergo the abortion. I tried he ignored and then told me that during this time I could have but instead he just told me about his dead mom and I thought I was super inappropriate to mention my feelings on my baby. Anyway that’s it, I’ve been crying and honestly any kind of advice of that sorts would be great, I’m really just depressed and feel so manipulated as if I am asking for so much as a text or to spend time with him. Please let me know. Thank you. submitted by Vivi_iomx to ToxicRelationships [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 07:17 nightbailey_ advice
2024.05.19 07:14 LukeHatesMovies Thoughts on grade?
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2024.05.19 06:42 kainike Delusional Filipino actually turned out fine
2024.05.19 06:37 SwanTraditional6912 New large tank setup advice
Just got this second hand. I keep small cube tanks but never one this big (like 150 by 60 by 80 cm or smt) it’s quite cloudy and I was wondering if anyone has advice for how to make it crystal clear- my other tanks are and I followed the same setup routine but this one isn’t. I set it up less than 24 hours ago and it came second hand with all the fish and everything. Last photo is what I’ve put in it. These are what I normally use. A part of me thinks it’ll just take more time to settle and it’ll get clear but also what if there’s more I need to do for the water? submitted by SwanTraditional6912 to fishtank [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 06:32 BrainWeary5577 I Found A Damage Aquafina And The New Coca Cola Bottle design On A Diet Coke At Winco Foods
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2024.05.19 06:30 markbowman1995 Got called a liar by support lol
Tried for extra equipped certification, ( submitted my dolly, straps, blanket, and image of largest vehicle ) got email back saying photos were from online 😕 when all my photos have my name and time stamps in the bottom corner as well as my license plate in the vehicle. Contacted support in chat agent is trying to get it resolved and says she can clearly see I'm telling the truth and the issue may stem from not sending in the pic of my truck ( multiple vehicles I own ) submitted by markbowman1995 to Roadie [link] [comments] |