 | | Emile van Veen, author of MMORPG | |
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Hi all,
Last week I received my first royalty cheque for sold ebooks over the period up until June 1. Yes: it really takes that long for any money to reach the author :-(
Nevertheless, I was positively surprised by the number of ebooks sold. Apparently, the sales figures of paperbacks and ebooks are almost equal. There's still a minor issue to be solved concerning the lay-out of the Kindle version sold through Amazon, I'll have a look at that later this week. The Kindle version which is sold through other channels is perfect, so that's pretty weird.
I was pleasanltly surprised by some more positive reviews over the past few weeks. I even added one to my homepage. Singularity Hub appears to have been quite impressed by Mmorpg! Reviews by readers are also very important. I'm finding more and more feedback by content readers on the web. So far, I've only found a single 2-star rating, the avarage is still somewhere between four and five stars, which is pretty satisfying. I wrote it for the enjoyment of others after all!
This weekend I'll devote some more time to prowling the internet looking for more references to my book. I'll keep you up to speed!
Emile
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Dear reader,
Today, I was taken completely by surprise by a sudden and ferocious renewal of interest by the international press in my book.
It appears that Anders Breivik (you know: the idiot who slaughtered 77 people in Norway just to make a stupid point) used computer games too prepare for his attacks. In his Manifest he descibes in detail how he used World of Warcraft as his cover and Call of Duty 2: Modern Warfare for training. The similarities with my book MMORPG are obvious...
Today was crazy. Apparantly, it all started with an article in one of the national newspapers, which was taken up by other Dutch papers and international press as well. I was driving to work completely unaware of all the fuss, when I suddenly heard my name on the radio. Googling myself a little later, I found articles and discussions all over the web, like this one for example. Within one hour, I was being approached with an interview request by a German TV station, who had picked up on the story in a Belgian newspaper...
For tomorrow I have multiple interviews scheduled: radio, TV and written press. It's going to be another interesting day.
The really good news is that the sales of my book are continuing to climb. MMORPG has settled in the Top10,000 bestsellers in the US, England and Germany, so that's not too bad. The even better news is that those figures are for paperbacks: the sales numbers of eBooks exceed those of old fashioned books by far.
I'll make it a point to add some of the media links to the "In the press section" of my website tomorrow.
Emile
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Good afternoon dear readers and visitors,
I realize it's taken me some time to get back to you in this spot. I've been incredibly busy working my ass off at ProSpex, where things are really starting to move! I simply didn't have the few minutes to spare to share my thoughts with you.
The major thing is that the sales of MMORPG continue in a steady flow. It's not exactly what we've been hoping for, but it's not terribly disappointing either. Especially eBooks fly out of the digital shelves. I read an article last week that claimed that some thirty percent of US population owns an e-reader or uses a tablet like the iPad to read books. I can tell you: I believe this! We sell more eBooks than paperbacks...
I'd like to ask readers who read my book to please take the time and make the effort to publish a reader review at whatever website or retailer they bought it. Reviews are what make a book successfull these days, so let's do it!!!!!
I promise to get back here next week again!
Emile
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Good morning, dear world!
I just studied the traffic statistics of this website and suddenly it struck me that there has been a significant shift this month. Until now, most visitors were from the Netherlands. This month, however, the US is on top of the list, followed by the UK and Germany.
It's also interesting to see that visitors enter more and more by direct links from other websites. I clicked on a lot of them, and saw that many are from forums and discussions. It's exciting to see that people are discussing my book or are referring to MMORPG in forum threads. I noted some references to MMORPG in comments on the way in which the CIA caught Osama bin Laden after one single intercepted telephone call. Lesson number one: stay away from cell phones and email, use a computer game instead! Also the hacking of Sony's PS network was connected to my book by more than a few people.
I promised myself that this is going to be a weekend of leisure and no work -at all. So: this is it for now!!! I'm going to devote all my time to Adrienne and the kids. The kick off was a minor soccer tournament of Nikki this morning, I loved to be there and watch all those kids chase the ball and each other.
Emile
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Adrienne, the kids and I had a minor celebration yesterday. The first royalty cheque was in the mail!
I wouldn't say that it was for a mind blowing amount as it only covers the very first days after MMORPG appeared on Amazon. Still, it's actually more than we expected!
It's hard to describe the feeling it gave us. The very first dollars in return for that tremendous effort we did! Once I figure out how to cash a cheque (in the Netherlands cheques have gone out of fashion some twenty years ago) I'll treat my beautiful wife to a very posh dinner. She deserves it!
The last few weeks have been filled with work. For those of you who didn't know: I accepted the position of COO at ProSpex, a very fast growing B2B lead generation company. It's headquartered in The Hague, but has subsidiaries elsewhere as well. This week I was in Spain for two days at the office in La Nucia, near Alicante. That may sound more promising than it actually was: the weather was horrible, while it was summer-like hot in Holland. That should be the other way around...
I vowed to myself that I'll spend some time on MMORPG this weekend. Browsing the Internet for comments and reviews, checking up on the sales numbers and so on.
One great thing is worth mentioning: my good friends Charlie and Joann who live in Colorado checked in by email this week. It has been some time since we had contact. It was so great to hear from them! There was also some sad news about Charlie's himself (he's a very good ER doctor) but all in all they're doing well. Charlie is a soccer addict like me, and he'll be coming over to Europe in May for the CL finals at Wembley. We're going to figure out if we can set something up.
Well I may be coming back to this spot this weekend if I find something really worth mentioning on the Internet about MMORPG!
Emile
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Last night, I tried to put the (until now sparsely available) sales information of MMORPG into a graph, just to get some feeling for what's happening.
This was not disappointing at all! It's obvious that the book is really starting into its sales cycle. The number of "spontaneous purchases" is increasing and that's adding to the forward motion. People are talking about it, sharing it and that's exactly what we need!
It's such a special feeling to see people writing about the book and seeing the proof that the fruit of my imagination is giving people joy and something to think and talk about. It's hard to put this feeling into words.
All in all, writing and publishing MMORPG had been a great experience until now!
Emile
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Hi all,
There was a problem with the posting of reactions and remarks on the weblog. I contacted customer support this morning and it should be fixed. So don't hesitate to spam your reactions and questions again!
Emile
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Dear readers and followers,
It has been a week since my last post on this blog. I've been so busy dealing with the press, that I couldn't even spare the time and energy. I've been working quite hard as wel; all kinds of exciting developments at ProsPex had me running around in circles.
Last night I had my last interview of the week as guest in the radio show BNR Digitaal on national radio. You can listen to it here. The Easter weekend is knocking on the door and I'm looking forward to it. Adrienne has planned all kind of nice things to do together with the kids.
It's hard to describe the media hype of the last ten days. I'm still coming to grips with the notion of being -temporarely- famous. It seems as if everyone I know (and the rest as well) has heard of my book. Googling myself, I find hits on pages in weird languages. When I press the "translate button" I can read that it's true: some Russian of Korean journalist has done an article on MMORPG. What's even better: MMORPG has gained "ranking" at retail channels all over the globe, meaning that it's being bought from the UK, Germany, Japan to New Zealand. I can't wait to see the first sales reports, but most of that information is still several weeks away.
Well, that's it for now. Happy Easter, and if you're looking for a nice pastime, I happen to know a good book to recommend ;-)
Emile
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Hello dear readers,
Two days ago, we had the press release in the US. I just received some feed back from the agency, and it seems that the information has been viewed by countless people. I Googled myself this afternoon and I was astonished at the number of hits. On Twitter alone I counted 332 retweets of the summary of the release!
Tonight I had two interviews with journalists from the States, for tomorrow several more are planned.
It may seem that I'm recounting this like some dry facts, but in truth I'm sooooo excited by all of this! I still can't believe what's happening with my book! Now... all that's needed is that loads of actually start buying MMORPG!
I'm tired and I'm quitting for today. It's been busy days and long nights, especially with the time difference; I'm going to grab some must needed sleep. I just hope that Nikki and Annaïs will let me. Nikki has been ill for the last few days, and he has fallen into the habit of joining mum and dad in the middle of the night...
Sleep well!
Emile
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Shocking news...
Fot those of you who missed it; it is all over the news today. The madman who shot twelve people with an automatic weapon in a shopping mall in The Netherlands last weekend, killing six, rehearsed his actions in the game Modern Warfare 2 beforehand. There's an uncanny similarity between the situation in the mall and the infamous "Airport Level". The police established that he had been training on his computer for his "mission".
It makes me sick. Nevertheless; it proves again that my book hits a raw nerve. It's happening...
Emile
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D-Day is only days away...
Now that the "local" media attention has died down somewhat, we're bracing ourselves for the press release we'll be circulating across the pond early next week. We're aiming at Tuesday morning (US time).
We cleared all the links to television, radio and newspaper interviews and articles from the "In the media" section to have a clean slate for next week ;-) Only the interview with mmogames.com remains, because that was posted yesterday afternoon.
We're totally unsure about what's going to happen. The press release is aimed at getting attention for the danger of terrorists using online games for their communication. We expect that at least some papers, websites or stations will pick up on it, like it happened here in Europe. What happens after is anybody's guess. We saw in the last weeks that the tiniest piece on a local news website can ignite a bonfire of attention. Never forget that the US is slightly bigger than western Europe...
Meanwhile, the marketing team is finetuning the press release that was written by an ANP professional expert. I'm in the loop as well and I'm trying to throw in my say the best I can. So far, it's looking good!
I'll use this spot to give updates on what's happening!
Emile
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Adrienne is holding the fort while I'm away for business most of the days. No easy job, I can tell you!
She and Simona are working to refine and polish the marketing offensive that we'll be starting in the US and (hopefully) across the gaming community. All the signs so far are very positive; people who hear about the book are intrigued and say they'd be interested in reading it - this is info from polls, not what they say in my face ;-)
We also received a ton of useful information about "how it works". We asked some people who work in the industry for their opinion and we were overwhelmed by the many tips and suggestions. We're still sifting through them in an effort to make sense of what we should be doing first. I can't thank the people who made an effort to contribute to the succes of MMORPG enough!
If you're reading this, you know I promised to get back to you, which I'll be doing for sure!
While we're busy counting down to the big-bang, I'll keep you posted about developments!
Grtz,
Emile
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It started with an article on FTM and the next thing I knew I was spread all over a whole page of the AD newspaper, the second largest paper of the country.
This ignited some kind of chain reaction. Adrienne -she's holding the fort- was flooded by interview requests. To give you an idea: this afternoon I'll be doing a radio interview, friday another and saturday I'll have to be at the studio for a television special, which will be braodcasted on the radio as well. Apart from that two other TV stations have shown interest and we've been approached by the leading talkshow on national television for an appearance. This is tentative though, I'll keep you updated!
Meanwhile, the sales are rolling. People from all over the world are buying MMORPG both in paperback and eBook formats. I keep telling myself that we still have to launch officially!
Before I sign off, I'd like to thank all the people who bought my book recently. I hope you enjoy it! Don't hesitate to tell me what you think.
Emile
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Just a tiny update of something that happened to me just a few minutes ago:
I was in the train this morning. An elder man was sitting across from me, reading the newspaper. At some point he looks up and says: "Excuse me, but this is you, isn't it?"
Yes it is, I'm all over the paper this morning. Full page article about MMORPG and terrorists using online games!
I'll keep you posted!
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Some people pointedly told me that I had been neglecting my weblog. My apologies. The upside is that I was pleasantly surprised by the number of people who are actually following this little space.
There is much to tell. We fixed the official book presentation for early April as we're still not quite ready with all the preparations and we're still in the process of enlisting some seriously good aid. More to come about that!
Meanwhile, the Dutch national press has gotten wind of MMORPG the novel. I gave my first interview to the famous Dutch investigative journalist Eric Smit, who is quite a hit in bookstores with his notorious books himself. If you're interested, you can read it here.
I gave an extensive interview to Algemeen Dagblad today, the second largest newspaper of the country. It will appear in the paper anytime between tomorrow and the end of March. Things are really happening now, there's no telling what will happen next.
It's very funny to see the book and my name pop up in ever more places. The number of hits when I Google myself increases each day. I stumbled across a discussion of MMORPG on some popular discussion website for New Yorkers for example. On the other side of the globe, where they use characters I can't read, they're doing the same, it's just that I have no idea AT ALL what they're saying...
I promise to be more digilent in keeping you up to date!
Emile
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Ladies and gentlemen,
Emile van Veen proudly presents: MMORPG in paperback!
Friday night I received an email that MMORPG was for sale on Amazon. The product info page isn't quite ready and complete yet, but those are minor details.
I was the first customer, and right after our own purchase we switched the Adwords campaign on, just to see what would happen. We let it run for 1,000 clicks and then we shut it off again.
The funny thing is, we don't have any idea what really happened. But SOMETHING happened for sure. Sales results take 3-4 business days to come through, but the Amazon bestsellers list is updated every hour. During the day we saw our book jump up from place 2.8 million or so to a ranking as the 42,334th bestselling book on Amazon. Now, a day later, it has fallen outside the top 100,000.
We'll start the marketing efforts for real in a few weeks, but the first results are encouraging. Maybe we should ask our friends and relatives to buy it first...
Watch this blog for updates!
Emile
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Imagine, coming back from the slopes and walking past the Internet stations in the lobby of our hotel. Adrienne suggested we checked the status of our book, but I was thinking that it was still too early, not much could have happened in the US so early in their day. How wrong can you be...
In the space of forty minutes, both the paperback and the eBook were released!
It will take another ten days for the paperback to become available through Amazon. The eBook is suddenly all over the place. From Barnes and Noble to numerous websites I never even heard of.
Now for the big surprise... I Googled myself and discovered that Amazon has listed MMORPG -the Kindle eBook edition, has been available for a few weeks- as number 5 on their list called HOT RELEASES! I thought that was just GREAT until I saw that the book Farmville for Dummies is on number one. How sad is that?
Well, that should be all for now. We have some celebration to do...
Later,
Emile
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YEEEEES! Through to the second round!
MMORPG was one of the last entries for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. So what did I expect? What did I hope for?
Who cares? I received an email an hour ago with the news that the survivors of the brutal first slashing had been announced. Out of 10,000 entries only 1,000 novels will proceed to the second round. So I went to the website... I selected the category General Fiction... I checked... I scrolled down... I saw...
Yes...
Indeed...
van Veen, Emile - MMORPG
It's really there! I'm on the list, one of the winners, ready to combat again!!
In the next round another seventy-five percent will be killed, as 250 out of 1,000 will go through to the quarter finals. Will MMORPG be among the winners again? I hope so!
Well, that's all for now folks. I am in a little hotel in Kassel, Germany, en route to our skiing destination. Nikki fell asleep as soon as he saw his bed, Annaïs is another matter. She is talking to Adrienne all the time and doesn't seem to be able to relax in a strange and new environment.
Would the mini bar hold any Champagne?
Emile
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D-Day is drawing near!
Last night, we approved the final corrections to the book. I can almost hear you asking: "Whaaaat? Even more corrections?"
Ehh, yes. Minor issues, like the ISBN-number that had accidentally been removed by the formatting department.
Adrienne had the honour of pressing the button, and to make it official. 3-2-1... We have ignition!
I couldn't sleep last night, not only because of Nikki who crept into our bed at some unmentionable time. The mere thought that there's no turning back from here kept me awake. The problem is, whenever I reread the book, I spot all kinds of minor issues that could be corrected or improved. Some conversation that seems a little stilted, a phrase that looks a bit clumsy. I wonder, does it need reparation or is it okay?
But we can't keep on wrestling with each and every sentence. From this moment on, it's for the reader to decide instead of me!
We expect the book to be available in our own e-store as soon as next weekend. Amazon 1-2 weeks later, other online retailers and bookstores 6-8 weeks after that. Exciting!
I'll keep you abreast of any developments!
Emile
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Wow....
Isn't it SHOCKING????
Adrienne and Simona -the emarketing queen, remember- left me no room to maneuver; the old website had to go. Do you have any idea how much time I spent creating that nice little book-design? How difficult it was to make all the new and existing content fit the new design?
Do you think they cared?
So here you are, welcome at the new emilevanveen.com website.
Oh, you want to know where the pictures come from? Well, Simona was in my face with a camera for the better part of an hour, clicking away like a photographer for The Sun who just spotted Prince Harry coming out of Tiffany's. I'm not so sure about the result yet, it's strange to have a website so obviously dedicated to myself.
Nevertheless, I had a nice and quiet afternoon building the new website. Annaïs was on my lap for all of that time, snuggling her sweet little face against my chest and occasionally touching some keys and messing things up. I enjoyed every second of it.
Well, I'll leave you to it for now. Explore the new content at your leisure and don't forget to take a peek at the "Meet the main characters" section!
Enjoy!
Emile
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