I got two things in the mail today. One was a couple of boxes of Foundation ActionScript Animation 3.0: Making Things Move! I’d put up pictures, but it looks pretty much like the last version. 🙂 Always a good feeling to get the hard copy in your hands, smell the fresh ink, flip through all the pages and say to yourself, “I really wrote all those words???” Those of who preordered should bet seeing is shortly.
The other item I got was a royalty check for the original version of Making Things Move. I know I’ve probably gone over this before, but the way writing generally works is you agree to an advance and a royalty rate. You get the advance in three payments usually, the last one when you finish the writing and editing. The advance is yours to keep. Even if the book never sells a single copy, you kept your end of the bargain and you’re all set.
Now, as the book sells, you start making a small percentage of each sale. Generally, as the numbers go up, your percentage gets higher. Kind of like tax brackets. The catch is, you don’t see any of that royalty at first. It goes to pay off your advance. Say you get a $5000 advance, and you make $2 per book sold (not real figures, not even close). After 2500 books are sold, your advance is paid off. After that, the royalties are actually paid to you in the form of a quarterly check.
Now, here’s the other catch. I’ve heard that 90% or more of all books never make back their advances. I can say that I’ve written or contributed to 10 or 11 books so far. Other than Making Things Move, the only royalty check I ever saw was something like $100 for Flash MX Most Wanted. I still get quarterly royalty statements that show how many hundreds or thousands of dollars are still “owed” on my advance. Again, it’s not “owed” in the sense that I’ll have to pay it, but it’s obvious for most of them that they aren’t ever going to sell enough copies to break even.
But with Making Things Move, the first quarter sales alone paid off almost the entire advance. The second quarter I got a check that blew my mind. And each additional quarter, I’ve gotten checks even larger! I’m talking double or triple the amount of the first check. I figured that by now, it would start slowing down. But the check I got today was the biggest ever. In fact, it’s just shy of the amount I originally got as an advance! I can’t say how much, but let’s just say it just about covered my Mac Book Pro and family’s trip to Japan. 🙂 So yeah, it was a pleasant surprise to say the least.
Anyway, this is blowing my mind. All I can say is THANK YOU to all of you who bought it, reviewed it, recommended it, used it as a text book, etc. You have made it a success beyond my wildest dreams. And now the next version is just about to hit the shelves. I can only hope it lives up to the praise you have given the first version.
oh oh! I want one! Congratulations on the big success! It’s not really surprising to me though.
Hey Keith, Congrats! Its great to see someone so dedicated to the community reap some rewards. Additionally, thanks for sharing this information, its very interesting. I’ve actually been wondering lately about how one goes about getting into books and other publishing venues. You obviously built a lot of name recognition through your site that I assume lead to offers, but I see plenty of names on books that I’ve never heard before.
I feel like I have enough knowledge to at least contribute a chapter or two to something, but have no idea how to pursue that goal. I suppose a logical first step might be getting articles published on sites, but I’m not sure if that step is necessary and/or ideal. Can you provide any guidance on how you might approach it if you were in my situation?
Hey Keith,
You’ve been such a huge influence on the Flash community for so long, you really do deserve to reap the rewards. Great Job. 🙂
The only thing i want is to see your book on one library here in italy (where the flash section is often really thin). I will continue to recoment it to librarians. 🙂
(at the moement I am in the same situation of Ben, so I will stay tunned on this thread)
Keep going on this way.
See you.
Well done bud!!!
Congrats!
I just ordered my copy today .. can’t wait for it to arrive!
Hi Keith,
I met you at the Flash Users Group last week and just downloaded the e-book of AS3 making things move. It looks great. Thanks for the hard work.
I looked on Friends ofEd.com and couldn’t find the downloads for the source files. Are they available yet?
thanks,
Chris
You sure deserve all the checks and recognition, I read the book front to back so many times, It’s amazing, can’t wait to get my copy of the second edition.
Hats off to you Keith 🙂
I’m impressed you got a royalty cheque for flash mx most wanted – the original foed went bust before I ever got paid for that one.
Also, you totally deserve the royalties for foudation actionscript animation – it’s probably one of the best flash books ever published!
Hi Keith,
You deserve those checks. When I started to play with Flash, one of the things that hooked me to learn Flash were the few tutorials that you posted in your site.
Then, it was a no brainier to get your Foundation ActionScript Animation book.
Now, I am trying to learn AS3 and I already ordered the new book.
Keep up writing good stuff and we will continue buying and reading it.
Hey Keith,
Congrats on the new book. I am eagerly waiting for my copy in the mail. What bothered me though is the fact that some of the biggest book sellers do not have even the cover of the book on the book’s page. There’s no info in the “About the Author” section. I personally have gone back over and over to see if this is rectified only to find out it is not. Eventhough the book itself does not need the picture of its cover in order to be sold ( I’m sure it nothing short of extraordinary to say the least) it would only be appropiate to have all the info there so that people just getting started with flash and AS can get to not only this site, but all the valuable resources linked from it.
–Just my 2 cent
Papervision3D owes a lot to the original book. Can’t wait to see what comes out of this one. Thanks, Keith.
Hey Keith,
Your book is simply amazing! I’ve read the first three chapters and I love it. Your explanations are so clear.
And it’s thanks to Chris Florio, who hyped it up so much (along with AS3) in my class, that I bought your book. AS3 is so much fun! 🙂
just got it! i loved the last version, but am getting tripped up on the super simple MyClass example on page 17. i’m assuming the com folder structure is at the same level as the example .fla. its strange to me that the package class file has the import statement:
import com.friendsofed.makingthingsmove.Utils;
how does the flash ide reference the class file if the import is in the class file?
thx for any pointers or clarification! and if this isn’t the appropriate forum let me know,
josh k
Josh, at that point of the book, I’m just explaining what classes are. I think all will become clear as to their actual usage as you move through the book.
thanks keith. i’m testing with a beta of flash 9 which maybe causing me problems as well. i compiled your FirstAnimation class example and got the following error:
Warning: 1090: Migration issue: The onEnterFrame is not triggered automatically by Flash Player at run time in ActionScript 3.0. You must first register this handler for the event using addEventListener ( ‘enterFrame’, callback_handler).
Josh, it’s not an error, it’s a warning. It’s just telling you that onEnterFrame is not automatically called. But, as long as you’ve set it up with addEventListener, you should be fine. If you don’t like it, you can change onEnterFrame to something else. There may also be a way to disable warning messages. It’s been a while since I used the public beta.
I’m glad your book was a success. Out of all the Flash/ActionScript I own, your book is by far the easiest to follow and understand by the way you explain your code and the concepts behind them. I just purchased the new edition off Amazon and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of it.
just recieved mine today and looking forward to reading it when I have time 😉
I did some quick skipping through the book and looks good :p
Keith, I am about one-third of the way through reading the AS3 version of your animation book, which I bought to review for the local flash user group. I use the Free Flex 2 SDK, and believe me I really appreciate your comments on how to use this dev env. Especially tracing, I know that’s going to come in handy.
Anyway, I think the AS3 version is due to be a much bigger success than the 2.0 version, because aside from animation, and aside from being a very thoughtful book, it teaches three things that everyone should have learned in school. And those three things are Physics, Trigonometry, and of course Thinking on your own. What a trio of gifts for the thoughtful imagination. Is there anyone reading these comments who hasn’t yet bought a copy of this book for a friend? Helloo!!!
p.s. are you going to be offering $2.56 per user-located error in the book, as Donald Knuth does? Not that you should be nervous or anything, it just strikes me as a creative idea to ensure the 4th edition is even better than the third.
Thanks George. I don’t have enough confidence to offer money for typos. 🙂
And fourth version??? I haven’t even given a second’s thought about doing a third version. This is only the second version. I suppose we’ll have to see what Flash 10/CS4 and AS4 brings us. 🙂 And I have no idea what or when that is.
Just to say I’ve read this and am now off to order my copy. The previous version was brilliant so do keep up the good work 🙂
Got your book today, an essential for my bookshelf 🙂 However, I dont think the Author Photo is that recent 😉
Hi Keith
I was looking for the source file for the book it seems that friendsofed.com is no longer. Would it be possible for you to make the files available online?
http://www.apress.com/web-development/flash/9781590597910
thanks! I suppose you aren’t doing much AS anymore these days?