Thursday News: More About Mars; Ebooks are for genre readers; Print books are for the literary fiction readers or so says David Hewson
Publishing NewsAmazon / Hacking / privacy / science19 Comments
I feel for you Hitler, I really do. That said, my little index finger will be hovering over the buy button on the 12th.
Ebooks: is it a genre thing? Definitely… – “But I do suspect that ebooks and the nature of ereading are changing the nature of popular narrative. Anything complex and lengthy – even Stephen King – feels odd on the ereader page. These are works made for paper, not pixels. The ones that ereaders – the people, not the device – favour are less adventurous, more predictable, and inevitably sit in the middle of popular genres.
In short… if you’re looking to the ereading revolution to save interesting, innovative and revolutionary writing then Ewan Morrison’s bang on: you’re looking in the wrong place. The challenge for those of us who care about quality is going to be to find the texture, resonance and depth of ‘literature’ — whatever that is — within the tight strictures of an undeviating narrative shorn of anything the average reader might regard as ‘art’.” David Hewson
A long time ago, I wrote an article about how literary fiction writers should embrace digital publishing. This author, a literary fiction writer, claims that digital books (which he seems to equate with self published ones) do not do well in digital because digital readers are genre readers; not literary fiction readers. He has some interesting things to say. I don’t think I really agree with him wholeheartedly in part because literary fiction people have been some of the strongest advocates of the print form, eschewing digital. It may be that the primary audience of Hewson’s books simply prefer reading print and therefore self publishing digitally is missing the main audience.
Order re Disclosure of Financial Relationships with Commentators on Issues in the Case – “The Court is concerned that the parties and/or counsel herein may have retained or paid print or internet authors, journalists, commentators or bloggers who have and/or may publish comments on the issues in this case. Although proceedings in this matter are almost over, they are not fully over yet and, in any event, the disclosure required by this order would be of use on appeal or on any remand to make clear whether any treatise, article, commentary or analysis on the issues posed by this case are possibly influenced by financial relationships to the parties or counsel. Therefore, each side and its counsel shall file a statement herein clear identifying all authors, journalists, commentators or bloggers who have reported or commented on any issues in this case and who have received money (other than normal subscription fees) from the party or its counsel during the pendency of this action.” Digital Commons Law
This is the text of an order in the Oracle v. Google intellectual property case. I think the list of paid journalists and bloggers could be really interesting and potentially damaging if these writers haven’t previously disclosed.
Why Do the Mars Rover’s Images Look So Bad? – “A lot of people are wondering why the first color image from the Mars Curiosity Rover looks so murky. Or why the black and white pictures look so low-resolution and out of focus in some areas. Calm yourselves. They will look absolutely amazing soon, perfect and in high-def….two words. Dust caps.” Gizmodo
I was wondering why the photos from Curiosity were so poor I needed everything labeled (and possibly even when they are in high res, I will need labels) but the good news is that better, amazing photos are yet to come. And just as I was getting this article ready to go, this panoramic image of Mars was posted.
Apple Really Doesn’t Know How to Fix Its Massive Security Exploit – When Gizmodo alumnus and wonderful human Mat Honan got hacked, the point of entry for the hackers was through Amazon and Apple’s lax security policies. Amazon immediately admitted its fault in the situation and updated its security policy accordingly. Apple? Well, Apple still doesn’t know what do yet. Gizmodo
Worst-ever game sales spook studios toward digital migration – “UK video games retailers made just £8.4 million ($13 million) from software sales last week – the lowest since records began, according to UKIE-GfK Chart-Track (via MCV). Industry umbrella group TIGA is now warning its membership of games developers to be more proactive about digital distribution, seemingly in readiness for a total collapse in bricks-and-mortar sales of plastic discs.” paidContent
Why wait until there is a crisis to make a change?
News Corp writes $2.8 billion off its publishing activities — paidContent – “Revenue in the group’s existing “publishing” division – comprising Dow Jones, WSJ, The Daily, New York Post, UK and Australian newspapers and HarperCollins – has halved in the last year, according to the group’s Wednesday disclosure of earnings for the fourth quarter ending June 30. News Corp blames worsening advertising at overseas newspapers, the absence of income from the shuttered News Of The World and the unquantified cost of April’s e-book price-fixing settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice.” paidContent
You can’t help but wonder if HarperCollins wishes the ABA, BN, and Authors Guild etc would stop protesting the settlement of a very expensive lawsuit for HC.
Thursday News and Deals: Naming Rights, Paypal (Again), Sockpuppetting, Amazon
Publishing NewsAmazon / censorship / Paypal17 Comments
News
RT is offering a chance for one reader to have her (or his) name in Kristen Callihans’ next book.
And now, Kristen Callihan is offering readers a way to become part of her new series. One lucky reader’s name will be used for a character in the upcoming series second, Moonglow.
More on the Paypal thing. Roslyn Holcomb had commented early on that Paypal issue may be related to chargebacks and I received another private email that suggested the same thing. Visa/Mastercard apparently charge “high risk” accounts a higher fee and Paypal isn’t set up that way and thus the chargebacks are becoming a problem and charge backs are frequent within the adult industry. One adult vendor shared a list of keywords that Paypal indicated cannot appear in book titles. AKA no “Daddy’s Best Friend”.
Jennifer Rhinehart wrote a two star review of The Firelord’s Lover by Kathryne Kennedy. A reader by the name of “Dark Hero: creates a profile and gives a one star review of Rhinehart’s book and starts hassling Rhinehart in the comments of her review. Unfortunately, CT Kennedy logs in and gives a positive review of another book and when you clicked on the CT Kennedy name, it led directly to Dark Hero profile. When this was outed, CT Kennedy changed the name to Angel Eyes and separated the identity from Dark Hero. Dark Hero also proceeds to delete a few comments on the thread under Rhinehart’s review.
Dark Hero continues to post using poor grammar and lower case letters. I guess to better disguise the identity?
I emailed Kathryne Kennedy and asked her for a comment and her reply was that it was her husband and not her. Shared with permission:
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. CT Kennedy is my husband and I confronted him about your email. He recently received a Kindle, and apparently in a misguided attempt to defend me, he responded to a negative review on Amazon. I asked him to stop it and delete anything he might have written! I have never responded to any negative reviews or comments in any way over the many years I have been writing, and I apologize if this has created any problems.
Again, thank you for letting me know.
Kathryne
Amazon is trying to flex its muscle in order to improve its margin. When Independent Publishers Group’s contract with Amazon came up, Amazon wanted better terms on the ebooks. IPG didn’t agree and in response, Amazon pulled the buy buttons for all the ebooks. This constitutes about 5,000 books. Amazon still sells the print versions. IPG sent out a press release/email to all of its client publishers telling them to stay strong and send all the traffic they could to other retailers.
Deals
Bundles. I think the great prices might only be at Amazon.
- One-Click Buy: December 2009 Harlequin Blaze by Vicki Lewis Thompson * $3.70 * A | BN | K | S
- One-Click Buy: December Harlequin Blaze by Jill Shalvis * $3.70 * A | BN | K | S
- One-Click Buy: December Silhouette Desire by Kasey Michaels * $3.91 * A | BN | K | S
- One-Click Buy: November Harlequin Presents by Kate Walker * $4.10 * A | BN | K | S
- Mackenzies Bundle: Mackenzie’s Mountain / Mackenzie’s Mission / Mackenzie’s Pleasure / A Game of Chance $5.92
Macmillan books for $2.99
- Evermore by Alyson Noel * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Dead Simple by Peter James * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Marked by PC Cast * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Still Life by Louise Penny * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Mixed Blood by Roger Smith * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Gettysburg by Newt Gringrich * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Pearl Harbor by Newt Gringrich * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- To Try Men’s Souls by Newt Gringrich * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Ice Station by Matt Reilly * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Tides of War by Tillyard, Stella * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Boca Knights by Steven Forman * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- From Two Rivers: Part 1 of Eye of the World by Jordan, Robert * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Hot Girl by Dream Jordan * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Me, Myself, and Why by MaryJanice Davidson * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Midnight Sins by Lora Leigh * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Cheri On Top by Susan Donovan * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Death, Taxes and a French Manicure by Diane Kelly * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Secrets to Seducing a Scot by Michelle Marcos * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Autumn by David Moody * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Kill Zone by Jack Coughlin * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- One Good Dog by Susan Wilson * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Typhoon by Charles Cumming * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Wanna Get Lucky by Deb Coonts * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Blood Song by Cat Adams * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Siren Song by Cat Adams * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Demon Song by Cat Adams * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Shadow Prowler by Alexy Pehov * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Into the Night by Janelle Denison * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Down River by John Hart * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Fountain Filled With Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming * $2.99 * A | BN | K | S
- Emma’s Secret by Barbara Taylor Bradford * $1.99 * A | BN | K | S
Theresa Weir’s classic wonkomance AMAZON LILY is free on Amazon today, too. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=amazon+lily
Okay, maybe it’s just me, but I thought the whole deal with the husband going on defense mode is kinda cute. And yes, I do buy it, the first thing that popped to mind when I read the handle “Dark Hero” was, “looks like the husband doesn’t like bad reviews of his wife’s work”. I like her books, btw, though “The Firelord’s Lover” is not among my favorites, have to admit.
Yeah, I buy the husband-did-it excuse too and, like Mireya, thought it was cute. My husband would have gotten all charged up to go out and defend my honor like that if I hadn’t had The Talk with him beforehand.
Jane, I did a LIVE chat with AMZ Kindle last night and said I thought it was outrageous that they were trying to Robber Baron another entity into bowing to AMZ’s big kindle stick. I’m not about to leave my kindle addiction behind so what can I do? Any suggestions welcome. I’m not so stupid that I don’t realise that the minute AMZ has everyone behind their huge successful walls, that prices won’t rise. So really, I’m being selfish: competition and everyone benefiting in a rising tide of e-readership helps everyone. Also, I’m prepared to pay a little more to keep more players in the game.
Edited: Just read Tina’s comment and I retract my statement. Not cute when rude and mean. Not cute at all.
I’m glad my husband was with me when I read all of those accounts of self-pubbed author bad behavior. And he was next to me when I was reading the Koko Brown thread/comments. His jaw dropped.
I don’t think what the husband did was cute or acceptable. He deleted all his comments, but judging from what the reviewer wrote in the forums where she went to get advice about his behavior, his comments were rude and he continued to hassle her, made her feel bad and then went on to write a bad review of her book out of spite. Not cricket.
Reading about the Amazon and IPG showdown reminded me of the essay Cory Doctorow has on boingboing that discusses the risks for us all episodes like this and not just higher prices and one place to go…
Cory talks about ‘the copyright wars are just the beta version of a long coming war on computation’ and that ‘The world we live in today is made of computers’ leading to the ultimate question of ‘whether every PC should be locked, so that their programs could be strictly regulated by central authorities’. Isn’t the Kindle an early version of this?
Cory says ‘we haven’t lost yet, but we have to win the copyright war first if we want to keep the Internet and the PC free and open’
http://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html
@Tina:
Oh. =( That’s unacceptable. You’re correct. I thought he maybe just made some statements about the book, but being rude and harassing is never cute, nor acceptable.
I didn’t think it was cute when Dark Hero was chasing me around, writing weird, angry reviews and badmouthing me to the romance community on Amazon. I felt pretty wound up and sick, actually. Mostly, I’m just glad it’s over, although to be honest, I don’t think this revelation makes it a happy ending.
Now, I feel sorry for Kathryne.
Yeah, I feel sorry for Kathryne too. I’m glad my husband isn’t online all that much, though we’ve talked about bad reviews and bad author behavior enough that he would know better (I hope!)
Re. today’s deals:
I reviewed the Julia Spencer-Fleming back in 2008 and gave it a B+ — by today’s policies, that would be a “DA Recommends,” we just didn’t have that banner back then. The review can be found here.
I’ve also had Louise Penny’s Still Life recommended to me by a couple of friends and of course the Kleypas as well, although I have not gotten around to reading either of them yet.
Thank you Jane, for getting to the bottom of this by contacting Kathryne Kennedy. Now I have a real sense of closure.
@Janet W: I hear what you are saying but I have a slightly different view point on this. I think I’ll blog about this on Sunday but essentially I feel like publishers are expecting readers to make a moral decision (fight the power) instead of offering us a real choice.
There’s also a “Marriage and Babies Bundle” of 4 Presents for 4.75, if anybody has a yen for baby books.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0038OOSZI/?tag=booksontheknob-20
Wow. And she thinks that writing an email saying “he did it for me! but I told him not to! gosh, sorry if this was an issue for anyone” makes it all better?
First, it should be noted that the husband doesn’t actually apologize for harassing and attacking a reviewer, he doesn’t take any responsibility for his actions (is he actually trying to use his Kindle as a justification? cause I own a Kindle, and so far I’ve resisted the urge to abuse people who give my friend’s books bad reviews with complete success), and most importantly, he doesn’t admit that his actions were wrong. Kennedy doesn’t even say if he’s actually promised not to do it again, or if we’re going to be seeing this with every less-than-stellar review of her books from now on, only with more of an attempt made to cover his tracks.
And I’m not that wild about Kennedy’s response, either, because her being sorry “if this has created any problems” completely ignores the fact that there’s an upset, harassed, and freaked out reviewer out there who’s just been attacked online for no goddamn reason by someone out to trash her reputation. There IS a problem–a serious one. Rinehart could have experienced emotional trauma, she could have been so upset that she got into a car accident, she could have felt physically threatened and called the cops to report him. (And yes, the cops do take that kind of thing seriously.) Handwaving it away as a little thing ignores the fact that, if he’d done this in person, he could have been arrested for assault.
Finally, I just have to say that this is one strong marriage if Kennedy’s willing to throw away her reputation as an author because her husband’s a moron who doesn’t know how to act in polite society. I’d never heard of her before this incident, and she’s now firmly associated in my head with harassment, reviewer abuse, and bad writing. I don’t care if my best friend in the world calls Kennedy the finest writer she’s ever read and her every word seems tailored to my interests, I’ll always remember this incident. A lot of people will. And no amount of non-apologies and “gosh, isn’t he silly!” emails will change that.
I’ve been left with a with a bad feeling, no amount of chocolate and John Hughes movies can banish. I guess what bothered me most is my own naivete, I mistakenly assumed that authors were a little thicker skinned than to resort to harassment and stalking to intimidate reviewers.
Lesson learned.