Come out and celebrate Making Things Move at our year-end party Holiday MIXER on December 11. We will be making mouse-trap powered cars (a featured project from her book) from 4PM-6PM, and then at 6PM we will host a Grand Prix and champagne toast to Dustyn and her achievement.
Making Things Move will be available in the Eyebeam bookstore starting December 11, and is also a prize in our Holiday Raffle.
Just a quick post here to let everyone know that my book is actually real, and I know because I got my stash today! Mine shipped right from the book bindery, and others are in transit to warehouses right now. It looks like they’ll ship out pre-orders as early as next week! I’ll be spending the weekend updating the website with videos, pictures, etc. in anticipation. And stay tuned for a BOOK LAUNCH PARTY announcement! Hint: Save the date for December 11th
My editor at McGraw-Hill tells me that the manufacturing supervisor says the “book bound date” is 11/16 and the “warehouse” date is 11/23. I’m still not sure exactly what that means, but it seems like I’ll get a few copies about a week after the book bound date, then they’ll start shipping to any pre-orders soon after that. Exciting!
A day or two ago I saved this screen short from Amazon: Best numbers I’ve seen yet!
I wish there was some way to graph this data over time to see how sales change in response to media coverage, blog posts, etc… that’s the nerd in me talking. I bet there is a way. And I will find it.
Also, the awesome people behind Ponoko.com’s blog just told me they featured the Not Lazy Susan project from chapter 10 as their Product of the Week! I put the table top up in my Ponoko.com store, and the file is still available on Thingiverse for free.
I tend to check my book’s rank at work when I’m procrastinating, and got a pleasant surprise at 11:55am this morning:
Not only is that the highest my book has ever been ranked overall (#38,959), there’s now a category associated with it! And it’s #67 in that category! I’m still learning how the guts of Amazon works, but this is a good thing. It’s great the it showed up under professional books, but funny that the majority of the “customers also bought” books are of a more DIY/hobbyist style. It’s actually perfect, because that’s right where I expected the book to fit – as a guide for DIYers, and a hands-on reference for engineers! I just had to get a screen capture of this since the Amazon ranks change all the time. Woo hoooo I can’t WAIT to have a copy in my hands! I’ll update this blog as soon as I get more info on the release date.
I had a great time at Maker Faire showing projects from Making Things Move and was shocked by the number of people that came to the table and had heard of the book and/or me! It was exciting and exhausting all in one. I loved all the inquisitive kids too – the mousetrap powered car was a big hit with them. Now that I’ve recovered, I wanted to post some tips for Makers at other Faires and recap some highlights:
Tips for makers:
1) Bring earplugs. The kind that are attached by a string are ideal so you can remove and replace them easily without losing or stepping on them. You might get put next to Madagascar Institute’s jet powered ponies, and after the 25th time they run them, your hearing loss and headache will max out. However, if you’re lucky, you may get to ride said jet powered ponies, like Becky Stern and I did:
2) Get help. Even though Ben had started a PhD out in Colorado at the Craft Technology Lab, he was able to fly in for the weekend and help out. We worked on SADbot together so it was super great and helpful that he was there to setup and talk to everyone about it. It also means we could each wander off from time to time to check out the rest of the Faire, attend talks/shows, etc. My partner Lorena was also there and was awesome to have the company and someone to make the table look nice! Between the three of us it was manageable, but would have been very tough to do alone.
3) Setup time follows the rule of pi – that is, it will take you approximately 3 times as long to setup as you initially estimate. Bring your whole toolbox if you’re installing anything and you *think* all you’ll need is some duct tape.
4) Bring your lunch. The lines for food were super long. The more time you can spend at your booth while sneaking bites of a sandwich, the more people you get to meet and talk to.
5) Manage your caffeine. I was surprised how tiring just standing around talking to people was! A couple sugar-free Red Bulls throughout the day did the trick. If you lose energy, your enthusiasm for your work will not transfer to your audience.
6) Wear comfy shoes! I wore some skimpy sandals the first day just planning for the heat, and my feet were on fire by the end of the day. You’ll be doing a lot of standing and talking. The 2nd day I wore squishier sandals and my cozy feet thanked me.
7) Say hi to your heroes. Maker Faire is a great equalizer, and everyone is there to have some fun and show their stuff. I got to meet Massimo Banzi of the Arduino team by saying something lame like “we have an Arduino here” when he strolled past my table. I was also introduced to Leah Buechley of the High-Low Tech group at MIT’s media lab by Tom Igoe. I had been a fan for a while and seen her talk at the Open Hardware Summit the day before and it was great to get the chance to meet.
Towards the end of the second day my friend Becky Stern rolled by on her scooter and gave Making Things Move (featuring SADbot) a blue Editor’s Choice ribbon! Ben and I were very proud – we’re working out joint custody of the ribbon.
The editing phase of the the book process has finally begun! I was contacted this week by my production editor, who is responsible for coordinating the production of the book from this point forward: copyediting, rendering/quality control of art, typesetting, proofreading, and indexing. Apparently my chapters are well written, and he is “expecting an overall light copy edit.” Note: the screen shot above is from the “light copy edit” of the first chapter – phew, I wonder what a heavy copy edit looks like!
I’m learning a lot about the book making process my first time through. One thing that amazes me is the amount of people involved in the project, both at McGraw-Hill Professional (MHP) and freelance consultants they hire. Here are the titles of the people associated with the book so far:
MHP editorial director
MHP acquisitions editor
MHP project editor
MHP copy editor
MHP senior art director
MHP senior marketing manager
MHP senior manager, marketing and publicity
freelance production editor
freelance art production consultant
indexers
… and that’s not counting my book agent who has been with me the whole time!
According to the latest schedule, the text editing should be done and sent to layout by September 9th. This means that right now the copy editor, project editor, and production editor go through each chapter and make some corrections, then send it to me to accept/reject/comment on the changes before final approval. Then, the text of the chapters will be sent to layout with all the art for each chapter, and I’ll get to review proofs over the first 2-3 weeks of September. I can’t WAIT to get a copy of this book in my hands!
The first project in chapter 10 of the book, Not Lazy Susan, won 3rd place in the Gadget Freak Design Contest! The relevant part of Make’s post is below, but check out the original for a full listing of winners. Thanks to Eyebeam interns Stina and Sam for all their help! Also, thanks to Design News – the contest’s other half – for their post!
Third Prize: Not lazy Susan
MAKE buddy, occasional guest author, and all-around wondergal Dustyn Roberts built a custom board and enclosure from scratch to create this hands-free Lazy Susan for the dinner table that rotates with just a wave of the hand:
In this project, we’ll use at lazy Susan (also called a turntable or thrust bearing) to create a rotating platform. To make things interesting, we’ll use an infrared LED and phototransistor to make the table rotate with just a wave of your hand. You can use this as a table to magically serve food to dinner guests, or to make a fun interactive centerpiece for the next wedding you plan.
Dustyn will receive one of two $100 gift certificates redeemable at the Maker Shed. Congratulations, Dustyn!
I’ve been doing a little bit of outreach when I have time to start generating some buzz for Making Things Move. First, the SADbot project I did with Ben Leduc-Mills for the book was posted on IEEE Spectrum’s automaton blog, then picked up by the adafruit industries blog and gizmo watch.
Then, I noticed June was physical science and mechanics month at the Make blog, so I commented that I was writing a book with a lot of that kind of stuff in it. Gareth (the Editor-In-Chief) wrote back, and a few weeks later we posted an excerpt from the book! The How-to: Make your own gears post also got picked up by Ponoko, Hackaday, adafruit industries, and How-to blogs.
Then, I got this email from aspiring engineer:
***********
Just found out about your upcoming Making Things Move book that McGraw
Hill is publishing from this fall—that’s how I found out about this
website. I have been trying to find a traditional book that deals with
the fundamentals of both the electrical and mechanical aspects of
mobile robotics. I looked at the Table of Contents for you book–seems
just what I need. I am just getting into robotics—hope to earn at
least a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electro/Mechanical Engineering
with emphasis on mobile robotic programming and design someday. Can’t
wait for your book!
***********
Ken is a production worker currently taking robotics classes at a local college, but hopes to work on mobile robotics in the future – even if just for fun. Best of luck to you Ken, and I hope the book helps you out when it’s published! I’m not sure how he found out about the book, but I’m happy to see the news has escaped my network of friends and colleagues and made it out to Ohio.
So if anyone has any ideas on creating more buzz to make a successful book launch and help more aspiring engineers/hobbyists, let me know in the comments. Thanks!
SADbot’s public debut is tonight at Eyebeam, in conjunction with the public opening of Eyebeam’s summer exhibit, Re:Group: Beyond Models of Consensus. Ben and I spent a LOT of time working on this, and are very happy with the result. I just uploaded the pulleys we 3D printed for the motors to Thingiverse, and check the project page soon for full documentation.
