Comments on: Thursday Midday Links: FTC, one more time

By: Caligi

Caligi — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:57:26 +0000

Like I said, I’ll get over it. Sarcasm/snark and text are notoriously misconstrued anyways. Sorry if I made you feel on the spot, you do a wonderful job with DA.

By: MaryK

MaryK — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:25:47 +0000

Okay, this might be a stupid question. How is this FTC stuff going to affect your old reviews? If I google for a book review and the link brings me directly to an old DA review, I’m not going to see the disclaimer; there isn’t one in the review, because it’s old, and the site disclaimer is only on the main page. Are the guidelines going to be retroactive?

By: Jane

Jane — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:35:12 +0000

@DS I sometimes think publishers are actively working to kill the ebook industry.

By: Jane

Jane — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:34:45 +0000

@Suze Yes, Cleland thought you could make a disclaimer in 7-8 characters. Sonoma Lass suggested #compcopy which I liked.

By: Karen S.

Karen S. — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:32:41 +0000

I was surprised when I looked at the Harlequin Vintage line that most of the books (if not all, my memory of the blurbs is sketchy) didn’t seem to be romance novels. Harlequin doesn’t only publish romance novels, but it does make up the majority of what they publish, they’re celebrating 60 years of doing so, and they’re mostly known for publishing romance. What the hell, Harlequin?

That and I was hoping for some old-school romances featuring librarians. :D

By: Sandia

Sandia — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:53:50 +0000

Book sales are depressed – sure, I’ve quit buying ebook editions that are priced higher than the MMP. It truly pisses me off that either publishers and/or amazon thinks that’s okay. I will not be finishing Jocelynn Drake’s Dark Days series because of this stupid pricing policy.

By: Suze

Suze — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:13:22 +0000

To be honest, I had to go looking for the disclaimer, because I hadn’t noticed it. And I wouldn’t have gone looking if the FTC discussions hadn’t drawn attention to it. I don’t find it (the one on the DA blog main page) snarky or sarcastic at all. I wonder if my sarcasm circuits have burnt out…

I’m not on Twitter, so forgive me if this is a stupid question, but does your tweet disclaimer cut into your 140 characters? Because THAT would be stupid.

By: DS

DS — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:06:33 +0000

I read the disclaimers once then ignored them ever after. I can’t think of any other way you could do it, especially since it should be prominent and in the same font size as other information.

Hopefully the FTC will clarify the issue in the future.

But as for:

Oh well. It's not like the UKers or Europeans or Aussies or New Zealanders need books to go with their shiny new device, right?

I should think publishers would want to sell books, but it doesn’t appear they do. At least they keep putting every possible block in the way of selling books.

By: Jane

Jane — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:51:28 +0000

@Caligi Well, the running sidebar is a simple copy and paste from the post itself. And the DA tweets? Those have to have disclaimers and yes, I probably will try to have fun with it since I find it an irritant. I'm sorry that it irritates you.

By: Jane

Jane — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:50:13 +0000

@Jocelyn a line break is a great idea. I'll employ that (or something).

By: Jocelyn

Jocelyn — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:33:33 +0000

It drives me nuts when people say “legal issues aside…” which seems to be the crux of the argument against the new disclaimers. You can’t shove the legal issues aside in the real world, especially not if you’re an attorney! I don’t even practice and never have (law degree was a waste of time and $), and I still follow all laws I’m aware of to the letter.

I hope that in the end, you’ll have displayed an over-abundance of caution. But I certainly think you’re smart to do so.

___________________________________

In other news, I think you should put a line break between your news segments. It took me a while to figure out that declining book sales didn’t relate to the FTC in any meaningful way at all.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:32:25 +0000

I've been in love with the vintage covers that Harlequin has been showing us and the titles went on sale this week. I admit to being reluctant to try one so I was glad when Keishon announced that she had bought one. Her review of I'll Bury My Dead by James Headley Chase makes me glad that I hesitated over a purchase.

I checked them out too but didn’t find any blurbs which interested me. And even these covers weren’t all that great, IMO.

By: ReacherFan

ReacherFan — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:19:01 +0000

An abundance of caution is not a bad thing when dealing with new regulations. When any new regulation hits, you know there will be a test case that most move thru the courts for many years to get the rule invalidated, restricted, or allowed. I’d say the one thing no one wants to be is that test case. The time, money and emotional wear and tear just isn’t worth it. It doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong, you will lose a lot regardless. I’d say the blanket disclaimer is a damn good idea.

By: RStewie

RStewie — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:06:20 +0000

I am in the business of CYA, so I am completely down with it.

I wish the blurb at the bottom weren’t so long, though…but that’s because I hate giving in to The Man (or The FCC).

Thanks for the heads up about the Facebook app…I’d LOVE to get some of those pictures off the computer and onto my wall.

By: Caligi

Caligi — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:03:45 +0000

Do I have suggestions? Beyond what I already mentioned, no.

The disclaimer in the reviews makes sense, but the running commentary in that BoB sidebar looks awful and a few of the DA tweets were eyerollers, too.

I only mention it because I liked the site a lot as it was – free of the snark and sarcasm Smart Bitches earns their hosting fees with (not that I hold it against them, since I like that site too.) I’ll get over it.

By: katiebabs

katiebabs — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:41:16 +0000

Wow, I would think that the Niffenegger would sell much more. Honestly. $5 advance for a sophomore book shocked me, but hey good for Niffenegger. If that were me, I would be jumping up and down.

Funny, I haven’t seen many reviews for The Lost Symbol on any of the blogs. Only on the reviews site for the newspapers.

By: MaryK

MaryK — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:33:05 +0000

I tend to use “book sales are depressed” news as justification for buying more books. Stimulating the economy, ya know. Of course, my bank account and TBR pile suffer for it.

By: Jane

Jane — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:22:18 +0000

@Caligi: Do you have suggestions?

By: Caligi

Caligi — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:21:13 +0000

Well, the way you’re doing it looks snarky and in the case of the Books On Board sidebar it’s nigh unreadable. I understand the desire to CYA, but there has to be a better way.

Maybe it’s just my own problem, but all those comments in parentheses rub me the wrong way. Surely the disclaimer in the actual recommendation suffices.