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

[titus]

Dear Sourcers,

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!

[Lemnear]

Finally! Congratulations pal!

[titus]

Finally! Congratulations pal!

Thanks dude! It took a bloody while, but I really think it was worth it. Let me know what you think! :)

[Lemnear]

Thanks dude! It took a bloody while, but I really think it was worth it. Let me know what you think! :)

Will do ... have a lot of stuff to read through, so that could take till Christmas

[Finn]

Hey Titus, I don't have any pounds. Is it on Amazon?

I read the excerpts you have made available. Fascinating.

[Deadpool09]

Yeah I wanna download it too, but Im only using an iPad, is it supported?

[zaaba]

Yes iPad is supported.

What you need to do is buy the book, then download it. Then drag the .epub file to iBooks, or drag the file into iTunes. Then just sync your iPad and it should be there on your iPad.

[Lord Seth]

Hey Titus, I don't have any pounds. Is it on Amazon?

I don't know if this is true for others, but my credit card lets you charge non-US dollars to it, though it did charge an extra fee on the bill for it. If that's true for yours, you should be able to buy it even without pounds, if you don't mind the probable extra charge.

[titus]

Morning guys - thanks for responding!

Let me tackle the above questions:

Regarding payment - With any credit card you should be able to place an order irrespective of currency. Hope it's not a problem for anyone.

Regarding formats - thanks for the ipad tip Zaaba! For anyone else using a specific device who prefers using the corresponding store, hopefully by Wednesday, the book will have rolled out in all major formats on all major platforms: that means you should be able to get it from Amazon for your Kindle, get it for your Kobo, Nook or also from the iTunes store. I'll try and keep people updated as it goes live in different formats either at https://www.facebook.com/sodoyouwearacape or http://sodoyouwearacape.com/. Hopefully very soon everyone who wants to read it should have easy access to it - so thanks for your patience!

Presumably when it's up on Amazon it should also make life easier for anyone paying from abroad - any problems though let me know. It's a bit of a leap into the unknown for me - I am though working with epubli (an e-book aggregator) to make the book as widely and easily available as possible.

Really hope you guys get to read it and have as much enjoyment doing so as I did writing it. It was quite the labour of love, but it was awesome to be documenting a community as meaningful as I believe Magic's to be.

Cheers!

[titus]

Apologies for 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/titusc...u-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!

[titus]

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/titusc...ape-chapter-6/

Merry Xmas one and all! May your food and drink be plentiful and your heartburn manageable.

[entity]

Read some excerpts from the book. I'm impressed and, well, now I do want to read the full book.
Any plans to release it on paper in the future? I hate books I can't physically put in my collection :( This is the first time I'm really considering buying an e-book though :)

[titus]

Read some excerpts from the book. I'm impressed and, well, now I do want to read the full book.
Any plans to release it on paper in the future? I hate books I can't physically put in my collection :( This is the first time I'm really considering buying an e-book though :)

Hey Entity, thanks for replying - and for checking out the extracts. The only I can thing I can say about a paper edition is that, yes, I would eventually like to get one out there and would like to try and find an agent to work with in 2014 on that front. Still, it would be a long time coming so I recommend giving your first e-book a go in the meantime. If you've got a tablet, e-reader or even just a big smartphone, they're pretty manageable :)

Hope you take the plunge - if you do, please do let me know what you think! :)

[CorwinB]

I finished reading the book yesterday (bought it on Kindle), and it was a very enjoyable read, a mix of great formatting of information I already knew, and a lot of new information as well. The chapters on the creation of the game and the evolution of WotC were incredible.

Thanks a lot for the hard work put into this project !

[ween]

Dang it, it's not on the Australian iTunes store still :(

[titus]

Dang it, it's not on the Australian iTunes store still :(

Hi Ween - I'm sorry about that. The only way I've been able to make the book available to Australia is via Amazon. If you're using an ipad or iphone, the easiest thing to do would be to go ahead and download the book from Australian Amazon and read it using one of their free kindle apps. I know a few people in Australia doing it this way and having no problem with it.

Hope that helps! Afraid the nature of these massive stores with their geo-blocking makes things pretty tricky for some regions and navigating it all as an indie/self-publisher is virtually impossible.

Please do give it a go though!

I finished reading the book yesterday (bought it on Kindle), and it was a very enjoyable read, a mix of great formatting of information I already knew, and a lot of new information as well. The chapters on the creation of the game and the evolution of WotC were incredible.

Thanks a lot for the hard work put into this project !

@CorwinB Thanks for the feedback! Really glad to hear you've been enjoying the book! I imagine for eternal players, there is plenty of well-known stuff included, but I hope that the balance was right for you. Please do let your friends know - or even better post your feedback on Amazon. Any word-of-mouth recommendations really greatly appreciated. Cheers! :)

[ween]

via Amazon.
...
navigating it all as an indie/self-publisher is virtually impossible.

Yeah, will do.

I appreciate that it sucks, nothing is ever easy dealing with Australia :P

[titus]

I appreciate that it sucks, nothing is ever easy dealing with Australia :P

As the English cricket team well know.... :)

[ween]

As the English cricket team well know.... :)

Hah

Book should be waiting for me on my iPad when I get home, many thanks.

[Plague Sliver]

Really enjoyed the sample chapter and hearing about your background - I just purchased it on Kindle. Good stuff man, can't wait to go through the whole thing.