Wil Wheaton might have become a minor celebrity with roles in “Stand by Me” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” but he has become a major online star with his http://www.wilwheaton.net Weblog. So much so that the actor signed a three-book deal — for books directly stemming from his blog — with a major publisher.
THE FIRST BOOK from publisher O’Reilly & Associates is out shortly and is titled “Dancing Barefoot,” a book Wheaton self-published and sold 3,000 copies of from his Web site in four months. Up next is “Just a Geek,” which will contain some of his blog writings on the rigors of being an ensign on the Starship Enterprise. The third book is tentatively titled “Wil Wheaton’s Website Design.”
“His blog is turning into books,” said Sara Winge, public relations director at O’Reilly & Associates, a publisher mostly of technical books. “There’s a whole geek culture out there as well as a ‘Star Trek’ culture. And those two cultures are quite intertwined. Plus, he’s a good writer. He’s hooking me.”
Having starred in one of the incarnations of “Star Trek” has “provided me a ton of stuff to write about,” Wheaton said, adding that none of the three books, though, are dominated by the topic.
He does promise to tell how he misled himself into thinking that leaving the hit TV show at the age of 18 would be a good career move and about the moment he learned to better appreciate his Wesley Crusher past.
“I went to a ‘Star Trek’ convention to tell people that I am not Spock, and I left telling people that I am Spock,” he recalled.© 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.