CleverNickName's Journal: Wheaton an enterprising author, too.

I made it into the Hollywood Reporter!!

It's a very positive article, and it's nice to read something about me in the entertainment press that isn't framed in a negative light:

Wil Wheaton might have become a minor celebrity with roles in "Stand by Me" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation," but he has become a major online star with his www.wilwheaton.net Weblog. So much so that the actor signed a three-book deal -- for books directly stemming from his blog -- with a major publisher.

The first book from publisher O'Reilly & Associates is out shortly and is titled "Dancing Barefoot," a book Wheaton self-published and sold 3,000 copies of from his Web site in four months. Up next is "Just a Geek," which will contain some of his blog writings on the rigors of being an ensign on the Starship Enterprise. The third book is tentatively titled "Wil Wheaton's Website Design."

This is really awesome, because everyone in the industry reads the Reporter. I understand that there's a mention in Variety today or Monday, too, and together they could translate into some meetings for me.

Where there's a Wil there's a way

[daeley]

Perhaps "Wil in a Nutshell" or "Wil Wheaton: The Missing Manual" would be an appropriate 4th title. ;) Congrats!

Re:I'm sort of partial to

[ericdano]

Ouch........OUCH!

Mom, make him stop!!!

Phasers on KILL!

Re:Where there's a Wil there's a way

[DCowern]

How about "Inverting Phase Modulators: Pocket Guide" or "Redirecting Warp Power through the Main Deflector in a Nutshell" or "Essential.. Shut up, Wesley!, 3rd Edition". Sorry, I just couldn't resist. ;-)

Wait a minute

[jamie]

If you're Spock, who is the Walrus?

Re:Wait a minute

[aWalrus]

me.

Sorry, couldn't help it =)

Wil, what will be the focus of the planned website design book?

Re:Wait a minute

[CleverNickName]

HA! :)

Well, I'm not sure. I think there are already enough fantastic HOWTO books out there about HTML and whatnot. What they want me to do is work up something about personal website design (since that's what WWdN is, when you get right down to it)

See, there are books on how to understand and use basic HTML, and there are advanced books on scripting and all that . . . but when I was learning, I couldn't find anything that filled some gaps between "What's a tag?" and "Make sure you set your tables to span

Cover Critter

[jeepliberty]

Do you get to choose the animal they put on the cover?

Re:Cover Critter

[jagger]

Rookie writers at O'Reilly dont get to chose their cover animals. Last I heard Wil was pushing for a monkey at a typewriter though.

Re:Cover Critter

[GoRK]

It's also worth noting that a great deal of the stuff O'Reilly publishes does not even have animals on the cover.

I do think a tribble would be funny, but it really doesn't have anything to do with Wil.. Did the tribble ever make an apperance on TNG anyway?

Re:Cover Critter

[Phroggy]

I do think a tribble would be funny, but it really doesn't have anything to do with Wil.. Did the tribble ever make an apperance on TNG anyway?

I don't believe so - only the DS9 episode "Trials and Tribble-ations".

Re:Cover Critter

[ViceClown]

There has to be a Tribble joke in there somewhere :-) Sorry, couldn't help it. Congrats, Wil! It's great to see things looking up for you!

I'm happy for you, but...

[dubiousdave]

For me, you became a major online star when you made the comment about Pattie Labelle's huge rack on TSS. Congratulations, either way.

You mean...

[turg]

...that being popular with online geeks can lead to Hollywood success? Wow. This changes everything :-)

Re:You mean...

[JordanH]

I think you have it backwards.

Having Hollywood success, in the right medium, can lead to you being popular with online geeks.

Re:You mean...

[turg]

Well, it seems to go both ways. (Wil is getting Hollywood recognition, in the form of the Reporter article, as a result of his online online popularity). It's some sort of cycle -- the great zen of celebrity -- online geeks and Hollywood elite as the ying and yang, the opposite ends of the spectrum.