Hugh C. Howey (born 1975) is an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
writer, known best for the science fiction series ''
Silo
A silo (from the Greek σιρός – ''siros'', "pit for holding grain") is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are used in agriculture to store fermented feed known as silage, not to be confused with a grain bin, which is used t ...
'', part of which he published independently through
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...
's
Kindle Direct Publishing
Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon.com's e-book publishing platform launched in November 2007, concurrently with the first Amazon Kindle device. Originally called Digital Text Platform, the platform allows authors and publishers to publish their b ...
system. Howey was raised in
Monroe, North Carolina
Monroe is a city in and the county seat of Union County, North Carolina, United States. The population increased from 32,797 in 2010 to 34,551 in 2020. It is within the rapidly growing Charlotte metropolitan area. Monroe has a council-manager f ...
and before publishing his books, he worked as a book store clerk, yacht captain, roofer, and audio technician.
''Wool''
He began the series in 2011, initially writing ''Wool'' as a stand-alone
short story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
. His first book was initially published with a small press. After that, he decided to publish through
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...
's
Kindle Direct Publishing
Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon.com's e-book publishing platform launched in November 2007, concurrently with the first Amazon Kindle device. Originally called Digital Text Platform, the platform allows authors and publishers to publish their b ...
system, because of the freedom of self-publishing. After the series grew in popularity, he began to write more entries for it. Howey began soliciting international rights in 2012, including signing a deal for
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. Film rights to the series were sold to
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
;
Lionsgate
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...
also expressed interest.
In 2012, Howey signed a deal with
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
to distribute ''Wool'' to book retailers across the
US and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. The deal allowed Howey to continue to sell the book online exclusively. He notably turned down seven figure offers in favor of a mid-six figure sum, in return for maintaining e-book rights.
He has also signed publishing contracts with Random House Century UK for UK distribution of both his ''Wool'' and ''Sand'' series, published as novels of the same names.
Howey became closely tied to both
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
/
Kindle Direct Publishing
Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon.com's e-book publishing platform launched in November 2007, concurrently with the first Amazon Kindle device. Originally called Digital Text Platform, the platform allows authors and publishers to publish their b ...
and self-publishing as a leader of the new paradigm of publishing. He opened up his Silo Saga to other authors, formalizing that effort when he signed with
Kindle Worlds Kindle Worlds was a publisher service of the online retailer Amazon, devoted to providing a commercial venue for fan fiction creations of specific licensed media properties. It was established on May 22, 2013, as part of Amazon Publishing. In August ...
. Though authors like Fredric Shernoff (Atlantic Island), Jason Gurley (Eleanor), and Michael Bunker (Pennsylvania) all experienced some degree of success that can be attributed to Howey, ''Wool'', and the Kindle Worlds project, nobody was able to replicate ''Wool''s success either through tie-in books or those authors' original stories.
Personal life
In mid-2015, Howey gave up his home in Florida, and moved to
St Francis Bay
St Francis Bay ( af, St Francisbaai) is a holiday town in Sarah Baartman District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, roughly one hour’s drive from Port Elizabeth.
On 11 November 2012 a fire destroyed 76 homes, almost ...
,
Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha.
The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. He commissioned the construction of a
sailing
Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...
catamaran
A Formula 16 beachable catamaran
Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States
A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...
, on which he plans to live and sail the world while he continues to write.
Howey has been an avid disc golfer since 1993.
Bibliography
Novels and novellas
* ''Half Way Home'' (May 1, 2010)
* ''The Hurricane'' (May 9, 2011)
* ''I, Zombie'' (August 15, 2012)
* ''The Shell Collector'' (December 14, 2014)
The Bern Saga
# ''Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue'' (August 22, 2009)
# ''Molly Fyde and the Land of Light'' (January 1, 2010)
# ''Molly Fyde and the Blood of Billions'' (June 1, 2010)
# ''Molly Fyde and the Fight for Peace'' (October 27, 2010)
# ''Molly Fyde and the Darkness Deep'' (TBA)
The Sand Chronicles
# ''The Belt of the Buried Gods'' (December 15, 2013)
# ''Out of No Man's Land'' (December 19, 2013)
# ''Return to Danvar'' (December 26, 2013)
# ''Thunder Due East'' (December 27, 2013)
# ''A Rap Upon Heaven's Gate'' (January 5, 2014)
# ''Across the Sand'' (October 4, 2022)
Silo series
# ''Wool'' (July 30, 2011)
# ''Wool: Proper Gauge'' (November 30, 2011)
# ''Wool: Casting Off'' (December 4, 2011)
# ''Wool: The Unraveling'' (December 25, 2011)
# ''Wool: The Stranded'' (January 14, 2012)
# ''First Shift: Legacy'' (April 14, 2012)
# ''Second Shift: Order'' (November 20, 2012)
# ''Third Shift: Pact'' (January 28, 2013)
# ''Dust'' (August 17, 2013)
Silo series short stories
These are part of
The Apocalypse Triptych
''The Apocalypse Triptych'' is a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. The first anthology, ''The End is Nigh'', was self-published on March 1, 2014, with the second ...
collection of short stories.
# ''In the Air'' from ''The End is Nigh'' (March 1, 2014)
# ''In the Mountains'' from ''The End is Now'' (September 1, 2014)
# ''In the Woods'' from ''The End Has Come'' (March 1, 2015)
Beacon 23 series
# ''Beacon 23: Part One: Little Noises'' (June 8, 2015)
# ''Beacon 23: Part Two: Pet Rocks'' (July 5, 2015)
# ''Beacon 23: Part Three: Bounty'' (July 19, 2015)
# ''Beacon 23: Part Four: Company'' (July 26, 2015)
# ''Beacon 23: Part Five: Visitor'' (August 8, 2015)
Short stories
* ''The Plagiarist'' (February 24, 2011)
* ''The Walk Up Nameless Ridge'' (September 4, 2012)
* ''Promises of London'' (May 26, 2014)
* ''Glitch'' (June 16, 2014)
* ''Second Suicide'' (July 17, 2014)
* ''The Box'' (May 22, 2015)
* ''Machine Learning'' (October 3, 2017)
Children's books
* ''Misty: The Proud Cloud'' (November 18, 2014), Illustrated by
Nidhi Chanani
Nidhi Chanani (born 1980) is an Indian-American freelance illustrator and artist. Her debut graphic novel ''Pashmina'' was released by First Second Books in October 2017.
Early life
Nidhi Chanani was born in Kolkata, India and moved to Southern ...
Collected editions
* ''Wool Omnibus Edition (Wool 1-5)'' (January 25, 2012)
* ''Shift Omnibus Edition (Shift 1-3)'' (January 27, 2013)
* ''Sand Omnibus Edition (Sand 1-5)'' (January 9, 2014)
* ''The Wool Trilogy (complete Silo Series)'' (February 20, 2014)
* ''Beacon 23: The Complete Novel (Beacon 23, 1-5)'' (September 6, 2015)
Nonfiction
# ''Wayfinding Part 1: Rats and Rafts'' (June 27, 2015)
# ''Wayfinding Part 2: Hell and Heaven'' (July 2, 2015)
# ''Wayfinding - Food and Fitness'' (July 3, 2015)
# ''Wayfinding Part 3: Hot & Cold'' (July 5, 2015)
# ''Wayfinding Part 4: Old World & New'' (July 12, 2015)
# ''Wayfinding Part 5: Consciousness and Subconsciousness'' (July 27, 2015)
# ''Wayfinding Part 6: Highs and Lows'' (August 27, 2015)
As editor
* ''The End is Nigh (
The Apocalypse Triptych
''The Apocalypse Triptych'' is a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. The first anthology, ''The End is Nigh'', was self-published on March 1, 2014, with the second ...
Book 1)'' (March 2014, with
John Joseph Adams
John Joseph Adams (born 1976) is an American science fiction and fantasy editor, critic, and publisher.
Career Editor
Adams worked as Assistant Editor at ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' from May 2001 to December 2009. In January 20 ...
)
* ''The End is Now (
The Apocalypse Triptych
''The Apocalypse Triptych'' is a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. The first anthology, ''The End is Nigh'', was self-published on March 1, 2014, with the second ...
Book 2)'' (September 2014, with
John Joseph Adams
John Joseph Adams (born 1976) is an American science fiction and fantasy editor, critic, and publisher.
Career Editor
Adams worked as Assistant Editor at ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' from May 2001 to December 2009. In January 20 ...
)
* ''The End Has Come (
The Apocalypse Triptych
''The Apocalypse Triptych'' is a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. The first anthology, ''The End is Nigh'', was self-published on March 1, 2014, with the second ...
Book 3)'' (May 2015, with
John Joseph Adams
John Joseph Adams (born 1976) is an American science fiction and fantasy editor, critic, and publisher.
Career Editor
Adams worked as Assistant Editor at ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' from May 2001 to December 2009. In January 20 ...
)
Interviews
*
* How Bestselling Author Hugh Howey Writes - Copyblogger - August 2015
* Winning at the Self-publishing Game with Hugh Howey
Filmography
Television
Wool
Production on the serialization of wool was announced in 2012. After development was begun by
AMC
AMC may refer to:
Film and television
* AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain
* AMC Networks, an American entertainment company
** AMC (TV channel)
** AMC+, streaming service
** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company
*** AM ...
, the project was moved to
Apple TV+
Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...
in May of 2021.
Beacon 23
In 2018 it was announced that the Beacon 23 series was going to be adapted into a television series. Filming began in 2022
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howey, Hugh
21st-century American novelists
American science fiction writers
Living people
1975 births
American male novelists
American male short story writers
Place of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American short story writers
21st-century American male writers
Writers from Charlotte, North Carolina
Novelists from North Carolina