Wired.com presents The Geek's Guide to the Galaxy.

And here are your hosts.

John Joseph Adams and David Barr-Kirtley.

Hi, this is Dave, and this is John and welcome to episode 83 of Geek's Guide to the

Galaxy. Our guest today is Hugh Howie best known as the author of Wool a self-published science fiction novel about the inhabitants of a futuristic

bomb shelter called the silo. The book became a runaway bestseller on Amazon.com,

netting Howie over $100,000 a month in sales.

He also recently sold the print rights to Simon and Schuster in a six-figure deal,

and the book has also been optioned for film by Ridley Scott,

director of Blade Runner and Alien.

Then stick around after the interview as we discuss the current state of self-publishing with

Guest Geek Tobias S. Pacelle.

All right, so let's get to our interview.

All right, so we're here with Hugh Howie.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you.

Thanks, David. Thanks, John.

Thanks for having me.

Okay, so you started self-publishing these e-books on Amazon.

com just a few years ago. And so could you just tell us at that point

how long had you been writing for and had you ever tried working with a traditional

publisher? I started writing in 2009 and my very first manuscript I just started sending out to friends and family and my idea

...