Friday News: VPNs confound geo-restrictions, SFR Galaxy Award Winners, the state of electronic and print books, new roles for literary agents, and Happy Valentine’s Day
Publishing Newsbest of lists / bookstores / Ebooks / geographical restrictions / Literary Agents / literary awards / print books / privacy / publishing / Science-Fiction-Romance / VPN7 Comments
VPNs Dissolve National Boundaries Online, for Work and Movie-Watching – VPN’s, or Virtual Privacy Networks, are often used by companies that need to maintain a secure environment for users managing sensitive and confidential information off-site, but now they are available more commonly (there are a number you can use through the Apple App Store, for example), and with that, they are being used to eliminate geographical restrictions on digital material like ebooks, games, and movies. So when consumers can cross international boundaries so easily, will (are?) the industries that currently profit from geographical restrictions adapt or resist?
What drives this enthusiasm for VPNs, it could be argued, is the way media companies are not providing entertainment fast enough in a world where everyone can be hip to the newest movie and television show. New Zealand movie theaters are now showing “Dumb and Dumber To,” which was on screens in the United States in November.
“There is a mismatch between the perception that you get what you want over the Internet and distribution doesn’t matter anymore, and a copyright holder selling things by territory,” said Tim Wu, a professor of media and copyright at Columbia Law School. –New York Times
Sci-Fi Encounters: Winners of the SFR Galaxy Awards – Veronica Scott interviews some of the winners of the SFR Galaxy Awards (description below), including Meljean Brook, Jayne Ann Krentz, P.J. Dean, and Sheryl Nantus. So along with a few book recommendations, if you enjoy Science Fiction Romance, you can read about why the genre appeals to a number of its stand-out authors.
Launched in 2012 by bloggers Laurie A. Green of Spacefreighters Lounge and Heather Massey of The Galaxy Express, this event honors a variety of standout stories. The theme of the SFR Galaxy Awards is inclusiveness, recognizing multiple science-fiction romance books and/or the standout elements they contain. The basic philosophy behind this approach is to help connect readers with books. –USA Today
Books, E and P, 2014 – Walt Crawford, who writes about libraries and technology (and any number of the policy implications), has devoted more than half of his new edition of e-journal Cites and Insights (the link is to a PDF, and the article begins on page 10) to a great round up of numerous articles on the relationship between digital and print books (as well as the technologies and retail outlets that facilitate their transfer to readers). This is not merely a summary or a fluff piece, however; Crawford writes knowledgeably and comprehensively about the steady sales of print books, the widely predicted plateauing of ebooks, and the stubborn persistence of the mass market paperback, despite reports to the contrary.
Thirty percent is starting to look like a plausible level for ebooks as a percentage of the trade- book market (in units, somewhat lower in dollars), and that’s a healthy market. The book publishing in- dustry was healthier in 2014 than in 2013, so my final suspicion might have some truth to it. As to the mass- market paperback market, there’s an October 2014 item about that here. Briefly, after huge declines from 2010 to 2013, the mass-market paperback market is stabilizing, even as ebook sales continue to rise (albeit much more slowly than in the past). So “probably not all” is, so far, about right—and I think “substantial portion” isn’t too far off either. –Cites and Insights
Joined agency – Curtis Brown CEO Johnny Geller has written an interesting piece about the (hopefully) evolving role of literary agents in the new publishing marketplace. I have always been shocked by the fact that there is no licensing requirement for literary agents, given that they are in a fiduciary position relative to their clients, but perhaps because they are not licensed, they have much more latitude in the services they can offer to clients. Geller’s argument proceeds from the fact that despite consolidation in publishing, there are still hundreds of literary agencies working in the industry. So in what direction does Geller — whose agency represents Diana Gabaldon, Lisa Jackson, Diana Palmer, and Tony Hillerman, among others — believe agents should evolve?
Where I think our industry falls down is the fear of participation. We need to be part of the deal, not just negotiating it. We need to be in partnership with the talent we believe in and create opportunities in every media for them. This is not simply being on their side when we broker the complex relationships with publisher and producer, but driving the deal as a partner, a stakeholder in our clients’ success. There are many ways to structure a deal and many ways of being a literary agent. At Curtis Brown, we have developed a successful agency-run creative writing course, a book group, a digital publishing facility and a television and film production company (Cuba Pictures).
Putting aside any quandaries about conflict of interest—there is rarely a conflict if the deal is fair and advantageous to the creator—our clients are more vulnerable if we can only sell them a set of relationships and industry practice. They need to be at the heart of production. –The Bookseller
The 20 best romance novels to spice up Valentine’s Day – According to Amazon, with blurbs, covers, and prices. Plus a vintage picture of Fabio. Enjoy and Happy Valentine’s Day! — Business Insider
An agent with a digital publishing arm clearly has a conflict of interest. Even assuming that the agents chose the best deal for the author, why would another publisher trust their competitor? What’s to stop the agent from negotiating the best deal then undercutting it with the in-house publisher?
I think that the whole publishing business needs to rethink the traditional roles and maybe agents turning publisher is a way to do that, but pretending this doesn’t create conflicts of interest that need watching is just not honest.
Regarding VPNs and New Zealand, they’re probably a much better alternative for content creators than what was happening before (i.e. NZ went piracy crazy from about the point where the public channel showing the Sopranos stopped it mid-season) at least this way some money is changing hands.
If you don’t give people a way of exchanging their money for your content then they are liable to turn pirate and everybody loses.
From where I see it, geo-restrictions on solely digital media PROMOTE piracy.
In my country, buying the DVD legally is absolutely unheard of. Prices are insane, shipping and handling over that and delivery takes forever (Amazon tracks until the goods are in the country, they can’t answer for our delightfully crappy postal service). Why go through the hassle when you can find movies in any downtown corner for us$0.99?
So yeah, digital streaming would be the solution, but we don’t get service. Seems our top ten ranking in world-wide piracy means we’re not profitable.
Guys, I’ve seen people who torrented every single thing they might see one day stop when Netflix finally arrived. If we could just get a subscription service for textbooks…
Thanks for posting the list of Galaxy Awards. Lots of good reading ideas there! I am pleased to see Hellcat’s Bounty on the list; I really enjoyed that book.
@Maite: I agree that most people would prefer a legal option to piracy, even if it does come at a cost (assuming said cost is reasonable).
I don’t do piracy, but I won’t buy overpriced books or other content. If, say, I can only get UK editions of a certain author’s ebooks (something that’s becoming more common, even though I’m not in the UK), I won’t buy them, or the print edition. That’s a lost sale to the author and whoever is publishing them, and I’m guessing it’s not the only one.
@SonomaLass: “Thanks for posting the list of Galaxy Awards. Lots of good reading ideas there!”
Agreed. I don’t know this genre very well at all so it’s nice to have some solid recs to go on.
I lived in China for 5 years so VPNs were a big thing for foreigners, and increasingly, wealthier Chinese. I lived right across the border from Hong Kong, however, so could usually get most of what I needed. I just went without Facebook and didn’t start Twitter until 2014.
VPNs are a good way to get your social life back while living overseas, but honestly, maybe it’d be better to just do without. Isn’t that one of the reasons you go overseas – to live in a different world?
Ah, but business. Right – go forth and conquer.