Jan 19 2011

Wednesday Midday Links: BN lending features are disappearing

By Jane • Publishing News • • Tags: , , ,

Apparently publishers really don’t like digital lending even though they want to keep charging us print prices without giving digital readers corresponding print rights for the digital books. In other words, charge the consumer the same price but don’t allow her to trade, resell, or loan the book out. Barnes and Noble launched the nook with a “Lend Me” feature. It was a big deal even though the terms of the loan was for a short period of time (14 days) and the book could only be lent once. Now that Kindle has turned its lending feature on, many publishers seem to have turned lending off at Barnes and Noble. The nook boards over at BN.com, readers complained that formerly lendable books no longer have that feature enabled. In checking my account, I see the same thing:


My guess is that under the Agency model, publishers cannot allow certain features to exist on one retailer but not on another thus if they turned off the lending feature on the Kindle, then the nook lending feature disappears as well.

But removing rights that existed at the time of purchase is a pretty sucky move.

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Maili sent me this fabulous piece about how one Chinese woman related to the Jane Austen stories. The author of the essay finds reflections of herself in the story as well as reflections of Chinese culture:

Jane Austen did not pretend that the ordinary was anything but, but she created stories and even a world that a person like me separated from her by two centuries can relate to:

● I see myself in the woman who has perhaps lost her bloom.
● I see myself in the book lover who is sometimes carried away by the romance of the fiction.
● I see myself in the daughter who is left with a widowed father.

and

I just don’t see myself in her novels though; I see the Chinese life in them:

 · Every Chinese knows a well-meaning mother like Mrs. Bennett who cannot rest until all her daughters are married.
 · What Chinese family won’t suffer an upheaval should a member do a Lydia? A Chinese father won’t be as civil as Mr. Bennett though to welcome the newlyweds back so soon after such a scandal that has brought the family shame.

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Blogger Mike Cane brought this fabulous quote to my attention. At the Paris Review, Lorin Stein answers questions about writing and one emailer sent in a question about dialogue:

Real speech deals with whole-wheat crackers. That's what it's for. Dialogue deals with whole-wheat crackers only if those crackers tell a secret-’if they reveal something about the character speaking.

This is exactly right. Conversation or dialogue between the characters shouldn’t just be there to fill space, but to tell us something about the characters. I just finished reading What I Did for a Duke by Julie Anne Long and the dialogue in that book is as Stein says it should be: lyrical.

"I do admire a woman of courage. And it takes courage to deflect a duke."

"I've no courage at all, then," she hastened to disparage herself. "I would never dream of deflecting a duke."

"Perhaps we can discuss this further during the dancing portion of the evening. You'll enjoy waltzing with me later this evening, Miss Eversea. I dance very well, despite the height."

"Your modesty is as appealing as your sensitivity, Lord Moncrieffe. But perhaps a reel other than the waltz? We differ so in height I shall be speaking to your third button throughout the dance. Else you will need to look a great distance down and I will need to look a great distance up. I shouldn't like you to end the evening with an aching neck."

Inevitable at your creaky, advanced age, she left eloquently, palpably unspoken.

He looked down at her for a moment, head slightly cocked, as if he could hear that unworthy thought echoing in her mind.

"My third button is so often a wallflower during balls I doubt it will mind your conversation overmuch."

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According to Richard Curtis at ereads.com, HarperCollins is inserting a moral clause in its boilerplate language.

New language in the termination provision of the Harper's boilerplate gives them the right to cancel a contract if "Author's conduct evidences a lack of due regard for public conventions and morals, or if Author commits a crime or any other act that will tend to bring Author into serious contempt, and such behavior would materially damage the Work's reputation or sales." The consequences? Harper can terminate your book deal. Not only that, you'll have to repay your advance. Harper may also avail itself of "other legal remedies" against you.

That’s a pretty big and vague morals’ clause.

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India is the third largest English book market and some people predict that it will become the major English book market in 10 years.

Already, India is the third-largest English book market, according to figures from the National Book Trust of India, and it is expanding every year. K Vaitheeswaran, the chief operating officer of IndiaPlaza.com, a leading online book vendor, said: “Some of it is a function of the fact that books are now available for Rs99 (Dh8), which is a suddenly affordable price point. A whole lot of people are buying books at that price”.

One would think that the increase in India readers would result in diversity of content from publishers as surely the Indian readers would want to see their values and cultural experiences reflected in these stories, even if some values and experiences are universal (see infra Chinese Jane Austen story).

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I thought this was a very funny article about men trying to learn more about their women based upon what their women read.   A recently engaged writer hopes to be the best husband possible and decides to read the book on his fiance’s nightstand in order to gain some insight.   The book was Happy Ever After by Nora Roberts.   The writer enlists his groomsmen to read with him so that they can cull out what makes the perfect man.

"Let's go to page 250," The Photographer said. He quoted Brown: "I can't deal with someone who can't talk to me, who can't be intimate with me except physically." The Photographer closed the book. "That may have been the closest to real life for me. I do find that my girlfriend wants to discuss everything and talk it out, and I'm more inclined to keep things in, and that's a constant friction."

…

"Yeah, I'm a big proponent of that. I think these really deep conversations bring people closer together. I think girls especially are big advocates of that," The Executive said.

It’s a cute and funny article although the ending might not please Nora Roberts’ fans (although I thought Happy Ever After was the weakest of the four bridal books.)

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