Beneath A Surface: Available Today!

Eight-ish months ago, this day seemed like a decade away but the book is done, it’s packaged up and ready for reading. If you haven’t bought it yet, you can find it on Amazon, LeanPub and a few others coming soon.

If you purchased a digital version from Amazon, it should be on your device, if you purchased a digital version from Thurrott, check your email.

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If you would like a physical copy, you can buy it today on Thurrott and it will soon be available on Amazon as well. The proof-copies are expected to be at my house this weekend. Provided everything is good with the print, the physical copies should be available starting next week. Of course, if there is an issue with the printing, then this will delay that availability.

The past three weeks have been filled with many late nights trying to finalize the text and formatting; it’s a much bigger task than you might think. But the book is done, albeit I need to push an update to the Amazon version as there are a couple minor fixes that need to be applied; Microsoft got three tries with Surface before it was perfect, I’ll graciously extend that offer to myself as well.

A special thanks to Paul as he put in a significant number of hours to edit the book.

All this being said, I personally hope that you enjoy the book. It is full of stories that have never been shared and gives the best look at how the brand was built. Creating a billion dollar brand doesn’t happen overnight and there were many success and failures along the way.

While the story of Surface is an on-going narrative, I have captured the early days and the journey up to this point in time. Even though the book has ended, I look forward to what Surface will release tomorrow.

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Conversation 40 comments

  • imback82

    29 November, 2018 - 12:37 pm

    <p>Congrats! I just bought the Kindle edition. :)</p>

    • Brad Sams

      Premium Member
      29 November, 2018 - 1:01 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#374854">In reply to imback82:</a></em></blockquote><p>Hope ya enjoy it!</p>

  • epsjrno

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 1:02 pm

    <p>Got the alert that it was available for my Kindle last night. Looking forward to reading it.</p>

  • faustxd9

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 1:07 pm

    <p>Congrats! Bought both a hard copy and Kindle version mainly to see the pictures in print form, not to mention supporting you guys. </p>

  • starkover

    29 November, 2018 - 1:09 pm

    <p>Just got the Kindle edition. As I am at work, opened it for a quick peak on the Kindle cloud reader. That was an hour ago. OOPS.</p><p><br></p><p>Congrats Brad, it's good.</p>

  • christian.hvid

    29 November, 2018 - 1:21 pm

    <p><em>"</em><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Microsoft got three tries with Surface before it was perfect, I’ll graciously extend that offer to myself as well."</em></p><p><br></p><p>Have you considered turning it into an "ebook-as-a-service", adding another poorly debugged chapter that nobody asked for every six months? :)</p><p><br></p><p>Anyway, just made you filthy rich.</p>

  • jaredthegeek

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 1:21 pm

    <p>I picked it up on Amazon and its on my Fire tablet waiting for me to read it.</p>

  • dc696969

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 2:04 pm

    <p>Thanks Brad. Kindle version acquired!</p>

  • Daninbusiness

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 2:40 pm

    <p>I took a peek this morning and am 75% the way through, didn't want to put it down. Nice work!</p>

    • Brad Sams

      Premium Member
      29 November, 2018 - 5:51 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#374930">In reply to Daninbusiness:</a></em></blockquote><p>woot!</p>

  • KPixel

    29 November, 2018 - 2:48 pm

    <p>Any updates on getting it into the Microsoft Store?</p><p>I'm eagerly waiting for that :)</p><p><br></p><p>By the way, you should always put the link to the official website in these articles, since it is the one-stop shop for all options and news.</p>

  • rc

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 2:50 pm

    <p>It would be nice if this post had a link to the book on Thurrott to make it easier to find :)</p><p><br></p><p>Also, apparently the physical and digital copies are out of stock on this site? Not sure how one runs out of digital copies. I'm hoping to grab a physical book so I can read about cutting-edge technology written on dead trees, as odd as this may seem.</p><p><br></p><p>Edit: probably because that was the pre-order page, makes sense. I'd appreciate it if someone could kindly link me to the proper ordering place, because I can't seem to find it.</p>

  • gregsedwards

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 2:58 pm

    <p>You should have a Thurrott.com contest (or special order link) for an autographed copy!</p>

    • SvenJ

      29 November, 2018 - 8:26 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#374943"><em>In reply to gregsedwards:</em></a><em> </em>Would that be with a digital signature?</blockquote><p><br></p>

  • jwpear

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 2:59 pm

    <p>Man, you're going to be rolling in the money now! Just ask Paul! :-)</p><p><br></p><p>Was just wondering about this a few days ago. Meant to check my Kindle to see if my pre-order had been pushed. Can't wait to get stared on it this evening!</p>

  • gregsedwards

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 3:00 pm

    <p> Also, no love for Microsoft Store Books? Seriously, this needs to happen.</p>

    • Brad Sams

      Premium Member
      29 November, 2018 - 5:52 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#374959">In reply to gregsedwards:</a></em></blockquote><p>You'd be surprised how much of a pain in the ass it is to get it into the store.</p><p><br></p><p>Option 1) give rights away to a random company to publish it in the store and take a hefty cut</p><p>Option 2) ??</p>

      • rfog

        30 November, 2018 - 5:14 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#375065">In reply to brad-sams:</a></em></blockquote><p>Option 2 is use iBooks platform and forget the crappy ethernal "quiero y no puedo" (i want but can't) always half done MS stuff.. :-P</p>

  • wolf

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 3:05 pm

    <p>Congratulations Brad!! Writing and publishing a book is an wonderful achievement. :)</p><p><br></p><p>A small note on the back cover, since you will be pushing updates at some point: I'm not sure how one becomes citied, but I imagine you meant to say cited.</p><p><br></p><p>Looking forward to reading the book. ;)</p>

    • Brad Sams

      Premium Member
      29 November, 2018 - 5:52 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#374962">In reply to Wolf:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Ah yes, that has been scrubbed.</p>

  • MityK

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 3:24 pm

    <p>Great! <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Congratulations Brad!</span> I've just got my digital version from Thurrott.com today and looking forward for the weekend to read it.</p><p>Any chance for Audio book?</p>

  • fraXis

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 3:26 pm

    <p>Congrats Brad. It pushed to my Kindle last night. I noticed on First Ring Daily you said that you updated it for the Kindle version this morning, but I am not showing an update in my Kindle account for it yet.</p><p><br></p>

  • derylmccarty

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 3:31 pm

    <p>Ok, got the Amazon notice last night that my pre-order was available so I downloaded the Kindle version, paid $9.83 and read it until about 0200 PST then later this AM finished it. I had also listened intently to your and Paul's FRD yesterday about the technical challenges to book writing on some software suites. So with "several" eyes I read the book – one with the usual how well done is the writing, how descriptive without being pedantic (my main problem with myself) or confusing (also my problem). Another is how the "technical" part of the book came together vis-à-vis charts, pictures, titles, grammar, spelling and formatting for my device. (I just changed out to a Fire Tablet 10 from a Paperwhite 2 for brightness and contrast, which means a 10.1 inch rectangle versus a 6 inch "squarish".) </p><p><br></p><p>So, my review: Technical – I now understand the frustration of formatting for any device. Picture titles were on the next page and the pictures too small until you could un-pinch them bigger which screwed up the rest of the format for that page until you could un-pinch them to a fly-out picture. Kindle or rather the "mobi" format is indeed a pretty good adapter, but it should not be a pain in the, uhh, neck for you. I would think that if you have a contract with Amazon to publish a book they would have a pretty hefty editorial service or package that you could use to write and format that they also could use to edit and evaluate. After all I am told they have a passing familiarity with and from time-to-time make a few pennies on publishing the written and spoken word. </p><p><br></p><p>Journalistically I found few items I would have changed (line three, chapter 1, I would have pluralized "PC maker-…") but that's just me. Beyond that I got so "into" the book that I probably missed what others will catch with "to, too, and two" or spelling issues. Which, if you think about it, is a compliment to style and storyline. I had zero problem with the tech descriptions nor following the cast of characters and their strong points and foibles. And you did a good job making sure that it was those strong points that became foibles not necessarily because of some evil at work. These were all people who cared about the tech, the company and the industry but whose passion and vision became a bit overmuch and clouded the future for a while. </p><p><br></p><p>All-in-all a good product about a subject about which I too am passionate. There is only a monitor in my SB2 at home desk top set up that is not a Surface product. And I have been a first day adopter of Surface from Surface Pro 1 through 3, then to SB1 and 2. You have really made me think about the confluence of marketing and engineering/product development in MSFT or even companies in general. I still don't know which is the chicken and which is the egg. </p><p><br></p><p>Deryl McCarty, Puyallup, WA, 30 miles from Redmond</p><p><br></p><p>Truth in Advertising: We partly owned and operated a computer store for 20 years that turned into three stores at one time, including a dial-up modem service. Our primary owner-partner was a code writer and computer builder so we participated in beta and alpha testing for a number of years starting with 98 and Me. And we only did repairs and PC building for Windows-based products on both Intel and AMD chips. We only folded in 2016 because, by conscious choice, we did not invest in training fast cycling employees on sealed unit (aka laptops, kinda) repair. And it became too easy for us to say it cost more to repair older but very expensive lower performing laptops than buy a new one.</p>

    • Brad Sams

      Premium Member
      29 November, 2018 - 5:53 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#374976">In reply to derylmccarty:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Appreciate this, thank you.</p>

  • Randall Lewis

    29 November, 2018 - 3:51 pm

    <p>Gee, I'd love to be able to actually read "Beneath a Surface", you know, on my Surface.</p>

    • starkover

      29 November, 2018 - 4:27 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#374996">In reply to Randall_Lewis:</a></em></blockquote><p>Try Kindle Cloud Reader on your favorite browser.</p>

    • Gedisoft

      Premium Member
      02 December, 2018 - 12:12 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#374996"><em>In reply to Randall_Lewis:</em></a></blockquote><p>I downloaded Perfect PDF reader from the MS store (It can also open epub &amp; mobi) and it's free.</p>

  • brettscoast

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 6:25 pm

    <p>Congrats Brad well done looking forward to a good read.</p>

  • Alexander Rothacker

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 7:26 pm

    <p>Now, where is the audio book, narrated by yours truly? :‑p</p><p><br></p>

  • Simard57

    29 November, 2018 - 7:37 pm

    <p>didn't Paul convince you writing a book isn't a good ROI on your time?</p><p><br></p>

  • Chris_Kez

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 8:13 pm

    <p><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="??" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/1f44f-1f3fc.svg"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="??" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/1f44f-1f3fc.svg"><img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="??" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/1f44f-1f3fc.svg"></p&gt;

  • ChiWax

    29 November, 2018 - 8:30 pm

    <p>Enjoying the Kindle version. Mr. Sams' youth shines bright. He will say "many years later" and he's describing five years. Love it!</p>

  • SeattleMike

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 8:43 pm

    <p>Hey everyone,</p><p><br></p><p>Anyone who loves the book (and who doesn’t) make sure and leave Brad a proper 5 star review on Amazon! <img draggable="false" class="emoji" alt="??" src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/11/svg/1f44d-1f3fb.svg"&gt; He deserves it for his great work!</p><p><br></p><p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Surface-Brad-Sams-ebook/dp/B07HDV5364/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1543552276&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=beneath+a+surface&quot; target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Surface-Brad-Sams-ebook/dp/B07HDV5364/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1543552276&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=beneath+a+surface</a></p><p><br></p&gt;

  • Lewk

    Premium Member
    29 November, 2018 - 10:04 pm

    <p>So I went to buy the Print version from Thurrott, but it says it's out of stock. Did it sell out that quick? Is there a way I can register for a copy when you get more stock? Thanks.</p>

  • train_wreck

    29 November, 2018 - 10:37 pm

    <p>Congrats Brad! Though if you do buy the electronic version, make sure not to read it in Edge! ??</p>

  • bbold

    30 November, 2018 - 12:55 am

    <p>Congratulations, Brad! I can't wait to get this soon. I wonder if Microsoft added code to Edge so Brad's book wouldn't render properly? 😛 lol</p><p><br></p><p>BB</p>

  • rfog

    30 November, 2018 - 5:19 am

    <p>Got Kindle edition two days ago, remove the "bug" if any (it is an automated process in my iMac), passed to PDF (as always I do with all of non literature books) and read about 20%. </p><p><br></p><p>On finish I will do a positive review in my podcast (sorry, in Spanish). Great writing (in my poor English understanding), seems well documented, but as always, MS seems the botched company I always thought was.</p>

  • Bdsrev

    30 November, 2018 - 4:30 pm

    <p>The book was excellent Brad. I kind of wish you would write one about the beginnings of the Xbox too. Maybe Paul could help out because he's old and went through all the Xbox stuff?</p>

  • Gedisoft

    Premium Member
    02 December, 2018 - 12:10 pm

    <p>I got the mail with the download link on thursday. And since I'm Belgian, I had some "issues" to read the ebook (epub and mobi aren't very much used here, mostly PDF), but that's the only negative point I have about the ebook. </p><p>I start reading the book yesterday and I'm allmost halfway. Very well written, with a lot of background info…as I've expected to find. It gives a clear insight in the Microsoft surface world. Nice work!</p>

  • vernonlvincent

    Premium Member
    03 December, 2018 - 7:31 pm

    <p>Left my Amazon review today and gave it 5 stars. An excellent book, Brad.</p>

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