Schneier on Security

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January 30, 2012

Liars and Outliers Update

According to my publisher, the book was printed last week and the warehouse is shipping orders to booksellers today. Amazon is likely to start shipping books on Thursday. (Yes, Amazon's webpage claims that the book will be published on February 21, 2012, but they'll ship copies as soon as they get them -- this ain't Harry Potter.) The Kindle edition is already shipping.

Those of you who ordered signed copies from me are likely going to have to wait a couple more weeks. My copies will arrive from the publisher eventually; then I will sign them and ship them on to you.

Reviews are starting to come out. I expect more in the coming month.

At the end of February, I'll be at the RSA Conference in San Francisco. In addition to my other speaking events, Davi Ottenheimer will interview me about the book at something called The Author's Studio. I'll be doing two one-hour book signings at the conference bookstore. And, and this is the best news of all, HP has bought 1,000 copies of the book and will be giving them away at their booth. I'll be doing a couple of signings there as well.

Posted on January 30, 2012 at 1:59 PM • 44 Comments

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Comments

Amazon delivered my Kindle Edition yesterday. I'm not very far into it yet, but have been enjoying it so far.

Posted by: Tristan Waddington at January 30, 2012 2:14 PM

Are you going to release an ebook copy without DRM?

Posted by: rubin110 at January 30, 2012 2:16 PM

Just bought the kindle edition, thanks for the tip that it's available now.

Posted by: Doug Fort at January 30, 2012 2:21 PM

"Are you going to release an ebook copy without DRM?"

The publisher, Wiley, makes those decisions. I don't know their intentions.

Posted by: Bruce Schneier at January 30, 2012 2:33 PM

"this ain't Harry Potter"

No. It's better. ;-)

Posted by: J.K. Rowling at January 30, 2012 2:52 PM

Can you sign my Kindle version? :-P

Posted by: Rifter at January 30, 2012 3:02 PM

Not to be negative, but if I get a signed copy, will you warranty against integer overflow.

Posted by: tz at January 30, 2012 3:09 PM

Is there a deal in the works for movie rights?

And if so, which actor should play the part of Bruce?

Posted by: Harry Potter at January 30, 2012 3:12 PM

>>which actor should play the part of Bruce?
Paul Giamatti

Does anyone have any influence to get an author on BookTV?
booktv@c-span.org

Posted by: aikimark at January 30, 2012 3:44 PM

It would be kind of poetically amusing to get the kindle version signed... with your key.

Posted by: lazlo at January 30, 2012 3:54 PM

+1 for the request for non-DRM copies of the book. Specifically, I'd like to see a straight-up ePub edition. Frankly, I probably won't buy it any other way. I know this isn't your decision per se, but certainly you can pass the request (and the anti-DRM sentiment) to your publisher. Thanks!

Posted by: Tim Gustafson at January 30, 2012 3:57 PM

Davi's got a book in the works?

I need to resume hanging out here regularly again.

Posted by: Pat Cahalan at January 30, 2012 3:58 PM

Exciting! Looking forward to getting my hands on a copy. The early reviews sound promising, too.

Posted by: Quirkz at January 30, 2012 4:17 PM

@Bruce, looking forward to it! And if anyone has questions they'd like me to ask feel free to send them.

@Pat, I do have a book in the works. Should be out in a couple months.

Posted by: Davi Ottenheimer at January 30, 2012 4:30 PM

"Exciting! Looking forward to getting my hands on a copy. The early reviews sound promising, too."

Thank you. I'm feeling really good about the book right now.

Posted by: Bruce Schneier at January 30, 2012 5:04 PM

@Bruce: I want to see a Best-of-Schneier book bundle. :)

Can we have one? I'd buy it!

Posted by: Natanael L at January 30, 2012 5:14 PM

"I want to see a Best-of-Schneier book bundle. :) Can we have one? I'd buy it!"

It exists. It's all older books, though.

Posted by: Bruce Schneier at January 30, 2012 6:46 PM

The Kindle version is not sold in Canada.

Could you ask the publisher to make it available in non-US countries?

Posted by: Daniel Haran at January 30, 2012 6:52 PM

Can you tell us if it contains a significant number of figures/images? That will let me know if the Kindle version is a good option.

Posted by: Larry N at January 30, 2012 7:26 PM

Guys, the DRM is just a challenge. Bruce wants you to break it and prove the publisher wrong.

Posted by: Chris at January 30, 2012 9:36 PM

This ain't Harry Potter? I'm canceling my order then :-P
Congratulations :)

Posted by: fbm at January 31, 2012 12:25 AM

Still beggars belief that a digital book cost $9.99 in the US and £13.09 in the UK. Thats $20.60. Double? What for? At least Dick Turpin wore a mask when he was trying to rob you.

Posted by: Dick Turpin at January 31, 2012 3:52 AM

If you're still doing book-tour stuff in October, I hope you'll consider the Texas Book Festival. It's always been an interesting and well-attended event, and I'm sure there are more than few folks in Austin who'd turn out for your sessions.

In addition to discussing the book's subject matter, you could join one of the panels they have on the authoring and publishing processes. The crowd-sourced nature of some elements of your book are rather unique.

Posted by: QnJ1Y2U at January 31, 2012 3:53 AM

@Larry N
All of the figures for the book are posted here.

Posted by: QnJ1Y2U at January 31, 2012 3:58 AM

"which actor should play the part of Bruce?"

Chuck Norris has been doing it for years.

Posted by: Civil Libertarian at January 31, 2012 6:12 AM

I received my electronic copy of the book from Amazon yesterday.

Posted by: Fred Terry at January 31, 2012 7:42 AM

Another review:
http://www.infoworld.com/print/185355

Posted by: AlanS at January 31, 2012 7:44 AM

Is it too trusting to state publically "I don’t use a home burglar alarm."

Perhaps its a ruse to capture local thieves who read your blog.

Andrew Kel

Posted by: Andrew Kel at January 31, 2012 7:50 AM

@Dick Turpin - part of that is that ebooks have 20% VAT while pbooks are untaxed.

But mostly it's just that ebook owners are obviously flash gits with the latest technology and can afford to pay more!

Posted by: NobodySpecial at January 31, 2012 7:51 AM

"Still beggars belief that a digital book cost $9.99 in the US and £13.09 in the UK. Thats $20.60. Double? What for?"

Copying files is much more expensive in the UK. All those extra 'u's
in words like colour, replacing 'a' with 'e' in grey (or is it the other
way around? I can never remember), converting dollars and cents to
pounds sterling and pence, it's all atrociously expensive.

Posted by: llewelly at January 31, 2012 10:50 AM

@llewelly
"Copying files ..."

Don't you know that "copying" is something only pirates do?

Each e-book is individually scanned from a paper book, which is then ceremoniously burnt.

Posted by: Thomas at January 31, 2012 4:37 PM

A globally-fixed price DRM-free version is very clearly needed.

I do however wonder of the US version is cheaper as it has to be much simpler.

Posted by: Rick Astley at February 1, 2012 4:11 AM

I've been reading the Kindle version on my Android phone and I'm seeing some weird layout glitches. Is anyone else seeing them?

Specifically, the bottom line of text on some pages is not being displayed (er, I guess it could be the top line of the next page that is missing -- Between two pages a line is missing :). If I change the font size or margins then I can get the text to reflow and the missing line of text to display, but then some other line goes missing.

Interestingly I can read the book just fine on Kindle for Mac. But I also haven't had this problem with any other ebooks on my phone. So it seems to be specific to just this book, and just on the android reader.

I've reported the issue to Amazon, but wanted to see if anyone else was having the same issue. Is anyone else even trying to read the book on an Android phone?

Posted by: Will at February 1, 2012 6:04 PM

I really want to read Liars and Outliers but I can't bring myself to purchase it. Not because it's too expensive. I would have no problems paying 30 USD for it. But I simply refuse to support this pricing absurdity. I want to read the digital version on my Kindle but it's more expensive than the hardcover version. Currently amazon.com charges USD 15 for the hardcover version and USD 23 for the Kindle version. Amazon.com will ship the book from the US to Germany for 8 USD. So for 23 USD I can get the hardcover version shipped across the Atlantic.
And btw, if I bought the hardcover book directly from Amazon.de, the German branch, I would have to pay 25 USD.

Posted by: Matthias at February 2, 2012 11:59 AM

Got an email from Amazon this morning - estimated arrival date for hard copy has been moved up to February 08, 2012 - February 11, 2012, so they apparently are indeed shipping before the "publication date." Looking forward to reading it!

Posted by: jbv at February 2, 2012 12:00 PM

Same here; shipment earlier. But we're all the way over here in Europe and still have to wait a number of weeks before ships arrive ... Why don't publishers use 'local'/regional printers ...? Economies of scale don't apply anymore given Bruce's huge turnover and it would save frustrating (well, we all have enough to do in Securityland don't we?) wait times and a bit of the environment. (Yeah, I know, not too much, but anyway)

Posted by: Jurgen at February 3, 2012 4:55 AM

Oh don't get me started on eBook versions. * They are not the same thing! *
Just follow Nick carr's blog on the tactile sense. Only those that don't get the value of carriers of culture, will not miss physical books. Poor, poor, very mind-poor persons you are.

Posted by: Jurgen at February 3, 2012 4:57 AM

I just bought the kindle version off amazon and it's in my library now. wooohoo!

Posted by: Wayne at February 3, 2012 1:12 PM

Looking forward to reading it!

Posted by: Happy Joy Joy at February 5, 2012 3:12 AM

Huzzah! My copy arrived Saturday! Excitedly anticipating digging into it. In the mean time, I get to puzzle over the inscription.

Thanks loads, Bruce.

Posted by: -B at February 5, 2012 10:17 AM

re: Inscription

HA! Hiding in plain sight.

Posted by: -B at February 6, 2012 10:59 AM

Bruce Schnier. this is the best book ever written. why didn't you tell us about the trolls thought? lol. inside joke with Kevin Mitnick.