[Book! - Premium] So do you wear a cape? The Unofficial Story of M:TG

[tito del monte]

(Note to mods: if you were able to move this to Article Discussion I would be extremely grateful)

Dear TMDers,

To those of who don’t know me (which is admittedly most of you), I am an English journalist and broadcaster in Berlin, who is also a dedicated Magic player and long-time forum lurker. For the last year, I have been working on something pretty special, which I am very excited to finally share with you.

SO DO YOU WEAR A CAPE? THE UNOFFICIAL STORY OF MAGIC: THE GATHERING is a full-length e-book (approximately 110,00 words) available right now for you to download! The book is priced at £4.99 (that's just over $8) and can be purchased here: http://bit.ly/ILNy25

SO DO YOU WEAR A CAPE? tells the story of our favourite world-changing card game Magic: The Gathering, the brilliant business behind it and the fascinating culture we as players have created. On the occasion of Magic's 20th birthday year, discover all the facets of its incredible history, together in one place for the first time ever.

Not only for the game's 12 million players worldwide, this book is also written for anyone curious about the Magic: The Gathering in all its guises – for friends and family who want to know more about our hobby, for anyone with a passing interest in games and geek culture and for a general public who underestimate the significance of a mould-busting game going strong after two decades.

The book features exclusive interviews with the game's creator Richard Garfield, as well as Wizards of the Coast founder Peter Adkison – plus further interviews with a huge number of figures from the game’s past, present and hopefully future. Pearls of wisdom are included from Lisa Stevenson, George "Skaff" Elias, Mark Justice, Olle Råde, Brian Weissman, Brian David-Marshall, Michael Flores, Barry Reich, Rich Hagon, Luis Scott-Vargas, Kai Budde, Jon Finkel, Mark Rosewater, Aaron Forsythe, Helene Bergeot, Randy Buehler and many, many more.

I promise you, there has never been a book about Magic like this. Please support it. Please tell your friends, family, followers and Friday night opponents. And enjoy the story of a phenomenon that is far, far more than, “just a game”.

Many thanks,

Titus Chalk
(@tituschalk on twitter)

EDIT: Having some problems with geo-blocking (apologies to Australians who have tried to purchase) - but the book is gradually going live on more platforms:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1bxMV2Y
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1bxMYvv
iTunes: http://bit.ly/1aYc4E6
Google Play: http://bit.ly/1cq1KFZ


Please note: Magic: The Gathering is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This book is neither approved by nor affiliated with Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Please also note: This is not a strategy guide and will in no way make you a better player!

[tito del monte]

Apologies for the double-post. Just wanted to let everyone know there is short article and sample chapter from the book up on Gathering Magic today, so please do check it out and learn more about SO DO YOU WEAR A CAPE?
http://www.gatheringmagic.com/tituschalk-community-12132013-extract-from-so-do-you-wear-a-cape/

If you're reading the book at the moment, please do post some feedback in this thread - it would be fantastic to know what you guys think!

[tribet]

That looks like great stuff. I read the teaser and thought it was very well written and couldn't stop reading.

I'm getting that for Xmas break.

"So do you wear a cap?" title made me smile so much. I'm still rather unconfortable sharing or discussing my hobby with my family or friends. They just don't get it.

Question: Is that a downloadable/printable PDF? I don't have an e-reader thingy or kindle.

[tito del monte]

Question: Is that a downloadable/printable PDF? I don't have an e-reader thingy or kindle.

Hey Tribet - thanks for reading, really glad you enjoyed the little sample! The whole book is about 110,000-words long, so there's plenty for you to get your teeth into.

It is not available as a PDF, but it's just as easy to read on screen if you don't have an e-reader or tablet. Just download the .epub file from here: http://bit.ly/1dBeBHh

Then you can use a free program like Adobe Digital Editions to read it: http://www.adobe.com/products/digital-editions/download.html

Please do give it a go - and let me (and TMD!) know what you think

EDIT:
@Tribet - It looks like you might be in Australia, which is going to make things tough due to bloody geo-blocking that I can't do anything about. As far as I understand you won't be able to download it from the epubli site in Australia and other Aussies have told me they had problems with Amazon, too.

Here is a list of all the platforms it is available on or will shortly be available on. I really hope you can find one that works in Australia - if not, please do let me know!

Amazon Kindle Store, Apple iBookstore, bol.it, Collins Booksellers, Fnac, Google Play Store, Indigo, Kobo Book Store, Livraria, Cultura Mondadori, Sony Reader Store, txtr, Whitcoulls, WHSmith and Nook Store.

[fsecco]

I can't seem to be able to buy it on Amazon... (i'm in Brazil). =/

[tito del monte]

I can't seem to be able to buy it on Amazon... (i'm in Brazil). =/

Hi - and thanks so much for trying to buy the book. I am working with an aggregator to make the book available (which means I don't handle uploading it to the internet myself) - i thought this would make it available everyhere and had no idea we would have problems with geo-blocking.

So, the best short-term fix I can suggest is trying to buy the .epub file from a different platform and then coverting it to kindle format. I blieve you can do this by emailing it to your kindle account or using a free programme like calibre to do the conversion:
http://calibre-ebook.com/

If this doesn't work (i.e if you can't download the file from any of the platforms listed above), please do let me know. First thing on Monday, I shall contact the aggregator and try and the e-book supplied to an Australian store and a Brazlian store.

Really had no idea geo-blocking for e-books would be so extreme. I'm extremely sorry for the inconvenience and will try and find a fix. Great to know someone in Brazil wants to read it - and I shall do everything I can to make it happen. Thanks for your patience!

EDIt: Reading this article made it seem like you might have more luck with the iTunes store in Brazil. Please do let me know if that works for you:
http://publishingperspectives.com/2013/04/apple-ibookstore-leads-brazils-ebook-market-in-2013/

[fsecco]

I was already going the iTunes route. But there it says the book is written in German. Are they wrong?

[tito del monte]

Hi Fsecco - yes that's completely false - the book is in English, so please do give iTunes a try. Let me know how you get on!

Cheers, Titus

EDIT: After chasing up the publishing people I've been working with, I can confirm that SO DO YOU WEAR A CAPE? will hit both amazon.com.au and amazon.com.br within the next day or two (in Kindle's .mobi format). Thanks for being patient guys and please spread the word through the Southern Hemisphere!

[iamfishman]

WOW!

A week ago I bought this book on the belief that it would be good(I have read other stuff you have written).  I was wrong, it wasn't just good, it was outstanding.

I couldn't put it down.  I would read pages before I went to bed, when I was eating breakfast in the morning, and even snuck in a few pages when my students were taking a test.

The way you described the feeling of first playing magic, and the fact that it is more about a community than an actual game for some people was so on the mark.  Some of my best experiences over the last two decades are thanks to this game(all five of my groomsmen at my wedding played magic at some point...and beside my brother and cousin, I befriended the other three through the game).

I am sending an email out to a number of people who I think will enjoy this book urging them to buy it.

Thanks for the time and energy that went into writing it.  I loved it.

[tito del monte]

@Iamfishman - Thanks so much for reading and posting here: you are the first person I know of to have finished the book! I'm really stoked to hear you enjoyed it and I'm glad my experience of the game had some resonance for you, too.

The way you described the feeling of first playing magic, and the fact that it is more about a community than an actual game for some people was so on the mark.  Some of my best experiences over the last two decades are thanks to this game(all five of my groomsmen at my wedding played magic at some point...and beside my brother and cousin, I befriended the other three through the game).

At the end of the day, when all the Magic cards are packed away and we've long given up arguing about the latest hot tech, it's the friends we have made playing the game who will matter most. Great to know you made so many good ones whilst playing. Please do spread the word to them - one group I definitely had in mind whilst writing was those who played for a year or two at school in the nineties and might be very surprised to hear that what they thought was a passing fad has grown up to be a hugely significant part of pop culture. Hope they enjoy it, too!

You've made my day. Many thanks

[tribet]

Purchased, Downloaded, Converted to PDF and printed ready for Xmas reading on the beach!

Thanks for this Titus!

[tito del monte]

Purchased, Downloaded, Converted to PDF and printed ready for Xmas reading on the beach!

Thanks for this Titus!

Thanks for your perseverance! Very grateful and I really hope you enjoy it! Have a cracking xmas!

[fsecco]

Just finished chapter 6 and I have something to note, if you don't mind.

In this chapter you point the importance of illustration to Magic. I think there's something even more important to that than forging a theme. I mean, you say that Magic wouldn't be what it is if they hadn't chosen a theme and, therefore, comissioned illustrations in order to show that. I agree, but there's something more. I think Magic's unique artwork is what made collecting the cards so fulfilling, specially in the beginning. That added a tremendous value to having the actual cards. Imagine if it was something like Uno - text only... Wouldn't have the same impact as a collection item. I know you say that earlier in the book, I'm just trying to make conversation hehe

There is also another importance to the artwork that is making the card easily recognizable (not only to find it in binders or else, but to understand the table state during the game).

[tito del monte]

@fsecco:
It's funny you mention that chapter - I was just revisiting it, to write an introduction to it, so it can be used as the next extract posted online. In that introduction I used an anecdote I couldn't squeeze into the book and say very clearly the illustrations made the cards cool. It's possible I skirt round that a little in the chapter itself - but later in the book, I do go into what it felt like to collect cards at the time, so don't worry!

The point about the board state is a very good one - and I simply overlooked that. I wanted to mention alters at some point and never got round to it - and actually now I realise they could (from the rules perspective) fit quite nicely into a paragraph or two about board state in that chapter. Something I shall perhaps tweak in a future edition. Good spot!

Thanks for the feedback - it's very different having the whole book out there in the hands of readers, rather than just an article or something. I've been writing to professionally for 8 years or so now, but the sensation to putting out such a massive text for readers to pick over is completely different. You don't live with an article for so long - the best part of a year - but at some at point you have to let go. I had to the text read by a lawyer before publishing and seeing the way he took certain sections apart very forensically was very enlightening - you realise that once a text is out there, it belongs to its readers, not its author anymore. The whole process is strangely alienating...

Anyway - just my musings on the writing process. Happy reading. And I hope later in the book, you enjoy the section where I talk about my personal experience of collecting, which I find very fetishistic in some ways.

[tito del monte]

Sorry to bump this thread - but just wanted to post a link to the new extract which went up today on Gatheringmagic.com. If Santa brought you a tablet or an e-reader and you want to read about Magic's entire history, I guarantee you'll love this e-book!

You can find a free chapter here, all about the conception of the game's original art, so please do suck it and see:
http://www.gatheringmagic.com/tituschalk-122513-so-do-you-wear-a-cape-chapter-6/

If anyone's been reading it on the couch while dinner's in the oven please do post and share your opinion. Be great to know it's being read by the Vintage community.

In the meantime, Merry Xmas one and all! May your food and drink be plentiful and your heartburn manageable.

[tribet]

Titus,

I just finished devouring your story.

Apart from the fact that it is very well written, it is not pretentious nor pompous and it was amazingly captivating because it is my story too.

The amount of work, research, time and passion poured into it is evident and mind-boggling.

You covered everything I wanted to know about the Game, its creation, its life, its people and us ... and me. We owe you one, this was gigantic!


It's 250+ pages of pleasure, print it, read it, talk about it, share it, sticky this post forever, make it bold and CAPITAL, hyperlink it, ... but don't ignore it if you like Magic.

[tito del monte]

Thomas! Thanks so much for the kind words and I'm really glad that printing it all out was worth it in the end.

I'm especially glad you felt included in the book and very much a part of Magic's story, along with me and everyone else who plays. I'm knew my experience of the game wasn't "special" - I'm not a Hall of Famer or anything like that - but I did hope that articulating it might be important to many others who would had lived something similar. And it means a lot to me to know you got that out of the book: that, essentially, we belong to the same community.

Thanks for the support and happy new year!

Titus

[zimagic]

Many thanks,

Titus Chalk
(@tituschalk on twitter)

Hi Titus,

Where did you live in Normandy?

Really enjoying the book. Discovering quite a lot about something I had thought I already knew quite a bit about.

Zimagic

[Prospero]

Just noticed the request to move the topic to the Article Discussion Forum.  The topic has been moved.

[gribdogs]

I bought it and thought it was a great read.  Having been introduced back in 4th/Ice Age I can readily identify with the content of the book. 

Titus, if you ever visit Cincinnati I'll have to buy you a drink and sling cards!

[tito del monte]

Hi - and cheers for the move Mods! Thought this was a better place for it.

I bought it and thought it was a great read.  Having been introduced back in 4th/Ice Age I can readily identify with the content of the book. 

Titus, if you ever visit Cincinnati I'll have to buy you a drink and sling cards!

That's a deal! Thanks so much for reading, really glad you enjoyed it. Sounds like we're very much the same generation of player

I think an interview with me went out in the GP Paris coverage at the weekend, so hopefully some of you might have caught if you were watching. Otherwise, I know there are few reviews in the pipeline at the moment and a further extract will be going up online towards the end of the week, on Channelfireball.com. I'll post a link here and hopefully it might convince some more of the Vintage community to check out the book.

Cheers guys!

[Lurker101]

Will this be readable on a nook? I plan on buying one and I can use my phone to read it but I know someone else who wants to read it and I plan on buying a copy for them as a small gift but they only have a nook for ebook reading.

[tito del monte]

Hi Lurker101,

Yes, you can get it directly from the Barnes and Noble Nook store if you want:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/so-do-you-wear-a-cape-titus-chalk/1117889791?ean=9783844268140

Basically, on every platform except for Amazon it is supplied in an .epub format, which is an open e-book format readable on virtually all devices. Amazon have a slightly different format for their Kindle store - but I think .epub files are also actually readable on Kindles too. Hopefully you shouldn't have any trouble putting this on your e-reader of choice.

Cheers,

Titus

[Lurker101]

Thanks! I look forward to reading it.