It’s been an interesting learning experience, which unfortunately means a slightly inconsistent final product. I initially began by working with 6×9″ books to keep the price economical, but the last two books I’ve changed over are at the 8×10″ size. When it came time to convert The Anatomy of Metroid Vol. I, I had to completely overhaul the book for technical reasons and decided to experiment with the larger format. I also combined both Metroid books into a single volume.

The results turned out to be pretty fantastic, I have to say. The 8×10″ format looks better, and because it allows more content in a smaller page count, and ends up being about the same price as a 6×9″ book. More importantly, the price of 8×10″ Anatomy paperbacks through Amazon ends up being about half that of 10×8″ paperbacks via Blurb! Volumes that were $40 on Blurb turn out to be $20 on Amazon, making them far more reasonable — and that’s before Amazon does its random temporary price reductions. Needless to say, this is the format and medium I’ll be using for all future books, Anatomy and otherwise.

My only complaints with the CreateSpace/Amazon route are that (1) I can’t sell through Amazon.ca (even though I can sell in Europe and the UK) and (2) they don’t offer a hardcover option. So my Blurb store will continue to offer hardcover versions of books as well as most old GameSpite Quarterly volumes. I intend to convert the platform retrospective books (NES, Super NES, and PlayStation) to Amazon with expanded content for those systems’ 30th/25th/20th anniversaries, but that process will take a while, I suspect… and I can’t find the Super NES book’s original files in my archives for some bizarre reason, so that one may simply be lost to the ages. We shall see.

Anyway, for anyone who had been interested in the Anatomy books but understandably balked at Blurb’s exhorbitant costs, they’re now available at Amazon for much more sane prices. Or, more specifically:

• The Anatomy of Castlevania: The NES Trilogy (8×10″, list price $19 instead of $39)
• The Anatomy of The Legend of Zelda & Zelda II (6×9″, list price $19 instead of $42)
• The Anatomy of Metroid Deluxe Edition (8×10″, combines Anatomy of Metroid Vols. I & II; base price $25 instead of $85 for the two Blurb volumes combined)
• The Anatomy of Super Mario Bros. (6×9″, base price $21 instead of $43)
• The Anatomy of Mega Man & Mega Man 2 (6×9″, base price $22 instead of $42)

And of course Game Boy World 1989. Needless to say, I’m pretty happy about this development — the books take a fair amount of time to put together, and maybe now people will actually be able to afford them. (Certainly they’re a lot more affordable for me now, and lining my bookshelves with my own words is really the whole point of this.)

Also, p.s., if anyone does pick up any of these volumes, I hope you’ll be kind enough to review it on the bookstore and increase its visibility! Ideally a positive review, but the important thing is to be honest, of course. Thanks!

Eat your heart out, Bob Dylan.

ANYWAY. The Anatomy of Mega Man Vol. I, which includes all the bits about Mega Man and Mega Man 2 from Anatomy of Games as well as a bit of new material, can now be purchased for American dollars. Probably some other kinds of dollars, too. I think Blurb is pretty open to most forms of capitalism.

The color hardcover and color paperback are both available. Yes, as always, self-publishing is spendy. The inexpensive black-and-white compact pocket edition will be along in a few weeks, and the PDF version will go up for sale next Monday on Gumroad (Patreon supporters get a one-week “exclusive” on it, you see).

I tried to do up the cover art in the style of Keiji Inafune, but it didn’t work out, so I did it up in the style of Hitoshi Ariga instead. That didn’t work out so well, either. Alas. I’m out of practice on the illustration front. But hey, the game analysis is pretty OK!

I love the way this stuff converts into coffee table format. So clean and crisp. Yes, it’s very much the definition of vanity press, given how few copies of these sell.

P.S., on a related note: Don’t forget that The Anatomy of Super Mario Bros. is featured in the Story Bundle Games 4.0 package for one more week, a big chunk of revenue from which goes to a charitable cause.