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Best-Selling Author Refuses $500k; Self-Publishes Instead
Last week we discussed an IT book author's adventures in trying to self-publish. Now, an anonymous reader points out an article examining another perspective:
"Barry Eisler, a NY Times best-selling author of various thriller novels, has just turned down a $500,000 book contract in order to self-publish his latest work. In a conversation with self-publishing aficionado Joe Konrath, Eisler talks about why this makes sense and how the publishing industry is responding in all the wrong ways to the rise of ebooks. He also explains the math by which it makes a lot more sense to retain 70% of your earnings on ebooks priced cheaply, rather than 14.9% on expensive books put out by publishers."
except Eisler isn't a total failure.
editors, working for publishers, are behind a lot of the great literary works of the united states.
philip k dick's "a scanner darkly" comes to mind. there are many others.
publishers also deal with libel and defamation lawsuits for you.
they also set up junkets so you can market your book.
im not saying theres no point to self publish, but there are many differences between music industry and book industry.
I figured publishers screwed over the authors, like artists and record labels, but DAMN... Good for him!
When he publishes a paperback version, I might even consider getting it. While I understand the convenience of Ebooks, the readers give me a headache if I try to read for too long and I'm prone to marathon reading sessions.
But I'll tell you why I am not inclined towards E-books. I like to read in the tub.
Derp. Also there are more out there. Pick one, or print it yourself.
1. Add another 200 pages
2. Create an online website
3. Create an online test bank
4. They would forward $5,000 of my expected earnings in order to perform the years worth of work.
5. Hand over complete copyright to them
6. If they decided that any changes were required, I would have to pay for the changes regardless if I agreed with them or not.
I told the VP what I thought in the most appropriate terms and stated that I would give the book away rather than have anything to do their company. So since 2000, the book Introduction to Data Communications has been free online to anyone who wishes to use it. I used to make pocket change from the Google adds and for the last couple of years, instead of Google adds, I advertise the programs that I teach for at the post-secondary institute.
I've heard that self-publishing is particularly beneficial for well-established authors, whereas unknowns benefit quite a bit from the resources of a publisher to produce and distribute a first/early work. Though, IANAA(uthor) ;)
You mean we can keep the 70% part???? I thought that part was for the dead tree crowd? Yeah I've checked it over thoroughly and releasing in a printed form is looking less and less attractive. Publishers need to think hard or risk loosing everything.
I should have figured it'd be a tech-savvy writer.
When I realized that Neil Gaiman was getting perhaps $2 out of that $20 new book, I thought, 'hell, I wish I could just buy any book he writes directly from him - I'd pay him $6, he gets triple times as much and I get it for 1/3 price'.
Kudos to him, I hope he's successful against the publisher blacklisting he's going to suffer....
-Styopa
You, sir, have the finest licensing agreement that I have ever seen in the introduction of your book. I was genuinely moved.
In which case, they're no longer an E-book, so I'm better off picking up books for a buck at thrift stores and garage sales.
Somehow I just find that a better investment of my money.
Thanks for doing this, the hard part is of course keeping it up-to-date, e.g. this http://learnat.sait.ab.ca/ict/txt_information/Intro2dcRev2/page14.html#Voice and the data lines paragraph immediately following.
I had the same problem, until i blew a wad of cash on a Kindle. Much more comfortable to read than a backlit LCD. It's not really good for anything but reading non-textbook ebooks though.
(disclaimer: yes, I have stock in Amazon)
Whoa, I was getting ready to view a few sections of this. That's a pretty hard agreement to keep just to read a little about data communications.
But I'll tell you why I am not inclined towards E-books. I like to read in the tub.
But e-book readers are even better than paper books for reading in the tub.
I found that my kindle fits perfectly into a quart sized freezer baggy (which are a bit thicker than sandwich baggies), and I can still operate all of the controls. Perfect for reading in the tub, and unlike a paper book, there's no worries about the book getting soggy if you dip it into the water - you can dunk the entire baggy protected Kindle into the water and pick it up and continue reading.
The baggy also works well when you want to take it to the beach and protect it from sand... or when you're eating doritos and don't want it to get all cheesy.
And since I already had these baggies in the kitchen, total cost for this protection was a few cents.
the President consulting with the UN instead of with Congress before committing our resources to yet another war in yet another sandy, third-world shithole makes you a tad bit uncomfortable.
Good stuff. My jaw is still on my desk.
Editors are a necessary part of any form of writing that isn't purely artistic (poetry, etc). Creating a piece of writing is a two-step process: first, you come up with the idea that you want to convey, but then you need to convey it in a manner in which people can understand. Even the best writers can be great at the former, but less so on the latter. It's the editor's job to think of the reader, and to put himself in the shoes of the public. Ironically, the same eccentricities that some great writers have that allow them their original viewpoints on their subject matter can be what prevents them from being able to relate to the "normal" reader.
Yes, there are some geniuses out there. Most of Twain's work is unchanged and Hunter S. Thompson's famous for his ramblings; but really, that's not the yardstick you should be going by.
Maybe the infrastructure for downloading music for free is too entrenched, but I'm glad to see this starting to happen; not just for my savings but for the artists. The publishing industry might have legitimate costs, but when I read that Konrath [sic] article I was horrified by the crappy cut the authors were getting. I thought only unsaavy or unestablished bands were getting exploited like that.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Hmmmm... Slashdot appears to have eaten my original comment. I hope my comment was yummy and filling, Slashdot.
Anyway... I read the interview earlier today and it's a pretty good read, if a bit long at somewhere over 13,000 words. Konrath is preaching his usual gospel, but it was nice to get Eisler's perspectives on the publishing industry and its inner workings. He drops a few entertaining links as well; one chronicles his struggles with a French publisher who bought the rights to one of his books. They went to the hassle of translating the book, only to put a cover on it that depicted a chartreuse garage door with a security camera. I have no idea what sort of through process led to that decision, but I'd kind of like to know.
I'm actually pleased as punch to see Barry Eisler doing so well, and doubly pleased that he's shifting to self-publishing and being so vocal about it. I met him back in 2003 shortly after his first book, Rain Fall, came out. I was working at a bookstore a few miles from his house, and he'd drop through to sign copies and urge us to sell more. I got the impression he was just a genuinely nice guy, and he even humored me when I asked for advice in getting an agent.
That said, I'm more than a bit jealous, too. He released a short story on Kindle this year, and it's apparently on track to make $30,000, while I'm struggling to sell a dozen copies of my sci-fi novel a month. He's a really good guy, though, and I wish him the absolute best as he dives head first into the self-publishing world.
You can't win, Darth. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
Yeah, you hit the nail on the head, there's not much motivation for keeping it up to date or revising it. It really needs all the graphics to be updated and the content reviewed. I do add new content once in a while, such as the section on subnet masking as it pertained to what I currently teach.
All looks good except for #2.
Damn, and I was interested, too. :P
Readings free, copying it - I take your soul...
And I said, the better decision as far as I'm concerned would be to buy a lot more used books rather than pay to print one out.
Really, if I'm buying an ebook just to print it out, it just does not seem a wise investment.
Why are you suggesting it? I'm baffled.
I won't know that you've viewed it until you remove your tinfoil hat then the Major League Baseball's satellite will report it to me. I should really modify the agreement to provide some penalties for those that don't follow it.
Well, then you're more of a risk taker than I am. I'm glad it works for you, but me, I just couldn't gamble that much on closing the bag.
And I really don't need to be tempted to eat more Doritos either!
Hell, I paid $150 for my first IT textbook, and it is really no more useful than yours.
You might have been whooshed by a troll. Watch out for that spread between "critically acclaimed" and "commercially popular". He found a market for Scouts With Issues - and makes money at it. I'd call that a genius at literary branding.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
And so I should buy an ebook just to print it out?
Why, when I'm much happier with my solution, buying books for far less from discount sources. Heck, I can even get several hardbacks for the cost of your solution.
Sorry, but you're just not making sense in your suggestion. Buy an ebook. Pay to print it? Then why buy the ebook? Seems a waste of dollars.
Posting anonymously so you can keep your mod points. ;-)
A comment and a question.
Is your "book" available in any form other than on-line? It certainly looks worth buying, and reading (though not in a web browser).
From Chapter 11:
You could use the services of a good editor. ;-)
Hmm - this line of the license says that we can modify and then use the text without pre-securing permissions from you.
"You are allowed to use it, view it, modify it without permission of the author Eugene Blanchard."
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I have a more important question. What the hell are you doing in a 'tub' anyway? Are you a woman?
whoosh
Honest question, which I feel is key to this area of copyleft etc -
Why is there no motivation for updating and revising it? Your original goal can't have been To Get Rich. What is your official opinion of people doing derivative works? I would advise you think in terms of the Creative Commons spread of licenses.
I have marked it for my notes, at the minimum to read, but also for alternative web experiments.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
There Is No Whoosh in copyright discussions anymore.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Apple is now the publisher du jour. The old publishing industry being taken over by the new. Can't say we didn't tell them... The old publishers wanted to keep their paradigm... and now they will go out of business. But I think this will go beyond apple. I don't like apple, never have, never will but I have always recommend their products for those that are looking for a more consumer experience rather than a do for yourself one...
I think in the end the writers that do well will get together and form a publishing co-op. No reason they couldn't for an online business model. They will continue to sell content to apple and other locked markets but apple won't keep a monopoly.
Apple has done what Microsoft tried to do for years. Window CE was on the first smart phone I ever saw, long before I ever heard of the iPhone. Microsoft was playing with tablets back in the days of windows 95. Creative Labs came out with the first digital music players (no real OS involved so MS didn't care.) What Steve Jobs and his team did was package a complete experience just like game console systems. So no chicken and egg dilemma. They were one of the few companies that was large enough and had the capital connections to create and market a complete experience and have brand recognition to be able to sell it.
Apple won't be able to hold onto the market with their system lock ins but so far they have a track record of selling gadgets to the public that the rest of the industry has failed at. Apple keeps inventing new markets. So what will their next killer product be? Maybe VR headsets?
Sorry, all your souls are now mine.... unless you can guess my name. Whoops, gave that one away. You win...
It's a comfortable and relaxing experience, you should try it.
With the decline and fall of the outlets for actual paper books, comes exactly the dilemma you are in. I am actually not interested in how some previously established writer decides to feel all bold and self publish. I am more interesed in cases like yours - how do I as a user decide whether to download such books? Rather than my typical 4 paragraph posts, since people have told me I kept getting whooshed on this thread, I'll leave it as the rhetorical but honest question.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Actually the line reads "You are allowed to use it, view it, modify it without permission of the author Eugene Blanchard, provided that you agree to the following:" then there's a bunch of conditions that if you follow you'll be a better person or a least make me feel better.....
This is slashdot. Many of the people here have long ago lost the ability to support their own body weight. They need to be floating in water, or else they'll quickly go the way of a beached whale.
I don't know if that was a compliment or not...
is there any way to get a pdf copy of your book so that i can put it on my reader? looks great and I really want to read it!
Money is a good motivator, there's a lot of work in revising the book and updating the look. A lot of the topics are now better covered on other websites. I started revising it a couple of years back and found that rather than re-invent the wheel by rewriting, I would most likely just add links to the many better sites that available for each subject. I'm also approaching early retirement age and I'm concentrating on other projects that will provide a better financial reward. Basically, I have too many things on the go.
It looks like you are using unauthorized 3rd party modifications with your Kindle. This is against the EULA, expect actions from Amazon.
You can download the first chapter of almost every ebook for free to decide if you like it. You can even keep it indefinitely. Try ripping the first chapter out of a paperback at your local book store and walking out with it. There is your difference.
I use to have a pdf of the book but the BW charges from people downloading started to cost me money every monthjust to give it away. As for the editor, that just one of the good services that I could use ;-)
There's a lot of work required to update it. I was especially proud of the Token Ring section than it became obsolete. I added the disclaimer at the beginning of the Token Ring section to stop teachers from using it in their curriculum other than as historical. Kept getting enquiries about Token Ring, the dead protocol. I just don't have the heart to remove it.
Put the pdf on rapidshare, megaupload or similar and link to it?
:).
Leave the Token Ring bit in. It's part of history
Nonsense! Forklifts and flatbed trucks with 'Oversized Load' banners exist for a reason!
I don't post AC. I like my -1, Flamebaits. Trump/Sheen 2012 on the Batshit Insane ticket!
Only problem is, I can *never* close those baggies quite all the way, which leads to a waterlogged Kindle. Although, based on their commercials, they should be able to absorb SOME moisture--at least one of the commercial spots highlight a dog licking a Kindle while the user goes on reading. Not sure what kind of dog, but I'm pretty sure it was a breed with highly active salivary glands.
I don't post AC. I like my -1, Flamebaits. Trump/Sheen 2012 on the Batshit Insane ticket!
I use to have a pdf of the book but the BW charges from people downloading started to cost me money every monthjust to give it away.
You could pop a torrent up to take the strain off your host. It's always nice to have one more legitimate, non-pirated torrent out in the wild.
[OFFTOPIC]
One of your licensing requirements "That you will respect the rights of others in their sexual orientation." Reminded me of a conversation with my mother many solar cycles ago.
She opposes gay marriage; when I point it out for her that she's forcing her beliefs on others she says that she isn't forcing them to believe what she wants.
But you are still forbidding them to marry? Of course not, they can marry whatever woman they want. She replies... I've tried this many times. She seriously thinks she is respecting their rights while tramping them. So I don't thionk it is going to work, bigots would simply auto-approve themselves anyway.
But... the future refused to change.
French --> English
librairie,libraire --> bookshop, bookseller
bibliotheque --> library
This is one thing that puts me off buying ebooks. At the moment they are overpriced.
Another problem is that they come with DRM, and running a free operating system I cannot read them and have to resort to other methods to obtain a free copy. I would much rather purchase a reasonably priced ebook with no DRM so that some money goes to the author.
We are left with the same untenable situation with ebooks as there was with the music industry, that is that you get a better ebook for free which is flexible and can be read on any ereader than you get by purchasing for £12 from an official ebook retailer.
Shang Tsung, is that you?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Been there, Agreed to that. You can check my web branding if you like.
So I shall honorably enter your text into my collection of source materials for web-justice projects.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I don't know how the actual dialogue went down, but it does sound kind of like they're about to tell you that YOU, yes YOU can self publish for ONLY $19.99 plus tax!
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
Fair answer, and a perfect lead in to my next theme - the Web desperately needs source materials released by the original authors. Despite your amusing license, if you are willing to do that, it will be an important step in the war against copyright tyranny.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
What about Comers book, Computer Networks and Internets? It was available in 1996, and 3rd edition was in 2001
The first chapter is rarely enough for me to determine if I like something. I much prefer scanning a book at a store because I am good at getting the overall flow of a text by flipping through it. The good stuff in most books starts about chapter 3.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
See Jamendo. Almost 300,000 tracks, under Creative Commons licensing, and it's your choice whether to donate.
Heh, I remember visiting a friend who had a pool... we'd take his Gameboy (The old school ones the size of a VHS tape), wrap it in 2 or 3 zip-lock bags, and take turns playing it underwater. Because frankly, why the hell not?
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
I can not read the book. I can not accept the license that requires my moral values to coincide with those of the author. For example, "That your family is first and foremost the most important thing in your life." makes not much sense to me, with no wife, no kids, parents dead, and the rest of the family not interested in much contact, and residing in a different country anyway.
Although he means well with it, I find such licensing an offensive intrusion in my life. If my employer would put up conditions like "That you will exercise your body as well as your mind" I would certainly tell him to stay out of my private life.
Some of the points are blatantly impossible. For example, "That you will defend the rights of those who are unable to defend themselves". Note that there is no provision to make this apply only occasionally, only when practical or even possible. Thus, anyone who is not defending the people in Libya, in China, and in Afghanistan, at the same time, is in violation of the license.
Moral principles are fine, but trying to enforce them as a condition for reading a book is absurd. If that is the price for reading the book, I rather keep my freedom!
In Murphy We Turst
[citation needed]
You might have been whooshed by a troll. Watch out for that spread between "critically acclaimed" and "commercially popular".
Actually I think this is how most critics are irrelevant and failing in their primary function. They are not relevant to the majority of the market, mostly too busy making themselves seem clever or arty.
Plus it might prevent some silly bugger from reinventing something similar.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Brilliant licencing agreement!!! Will post it on the wall of my company office!
But I'll tell you why I am not inclined towards E-books. I like to read in the tub.
Luckily for you, according to all the advertising for all the ebooks I've ever seen, ebooks are for thin women to read at the beach while wearing a modest one-piece suit. Not in a tub or whatever. Seriously, check the ads for all the majors, its a mandatory photo for all ebook promotional literature.
Bathing vs showering might be an interesting /. poll, more interesting than some have been. I have not taken a bath since the 80s. Take regular daily showers, sure, but a bath?
Especially since I know how the photos would break the internet.
Can't possibly be worse than goatse.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
While one applauds Mr. Eisler's decision to disintermediate his publisher (thus contributing to joblessness for his own gain), one cannot help but notice that his sales problem will be one of distribution; i.e., like him or not, he has his audience and, once they realize they can e-borrow his books from the library, he will retain his volume. For those authors new to the marketplace, this option is a problem - how does one get their book publicized, reviewed and on to the big sites like Barnes & Noble and Amazon?
But I'll tell you why I am not inclined towards E-books. I like to read in the tub.
Put the reader in a ziploc bag and use your preferred method for sealing it. Won't be completely waterproof unless you seal the bag with an electric bag sealer (and then you have to rip it open to get the reader back; on the other hand, sealing it with air inside will make sure it floats), but it'll stand casual splashing and probably even short immersion, at least for the time necessary for you to go "OH FUCK" and fish it out. :P
MLB? So you ARE in league (NPI) with them!
*hides under desk*
How do I as a user decide whether to download such books?
I think you asked a wonderful question. Right now, I believe the best answer is to go here but that answer is not very useful.
Another answer is to go here but that isn't terribly useful either.
Another resource is here.
I agree with you, though. Being able to answer the question "How to I find talented, yet undiscovered authors so I can read their work?" is a question that begs to be answered.
I use to have a pdf of the book but the BW charges from people downloading started to cost me money every monthjust to give it away
Maybe LaTeX? gzip it and it'll be smaller than the HTML and anyone who would be able to grok what's in there would be able to generate his own pdf. *Puss-in-Boots eyes*
Yup. Perfect legitimate use of bittorrent.
Hell I would keep it seeded in perpetuity.
Then take a risk.
I read first chapter and look at amazon reviews. 90% of the time if it is a bad book I know it in the first chapter. Hell sometimes I know it in the first dozen pages. If not then put your money where your mouth is and take a risk. Most new authors have books for $0.99 to $2.99. Hardly a significant investment. If 3/4ths of them don't pan out well who cares. The 1/4th is what I am interested in. Have a couple authors I wish they would release a new book because I would gladly buy it (and pay twice as much).
My book is $2.99. That's the scientifically-calculated appropriate price.
Oh, how I wish I had a mod point right now... :P
Read in the tub? What's wrong with using an e-reader to do that? you need one of these: http://www.loksak.com/ They come in different sizes, from iphone up to ipad/kindle. Great for the beach too - for keeping sand out of stuff.
[OFFTOPIC]
Is there by any change a pdf/ebook version of your book?
Anyway: thanks for sharing your knowledge
Thanks for releasing the book.
I am hoping to see the day when the $150 books are replaced by hyperlinks to the ePub or PDF, and students just buy an eBook reader to view them. The only problem is that I understand that most writers do not want to give their work away for free. I wonder if there might be enough money to be made by producing a kindle/nook version of a high quality textbook, and selling it in their markets for a fraction of what college textbooks usually cost.
You can get proper ziplock bags that are truly waterproof, but the typical cheapo sandwich baggies won't do the job if immersed. The truly waterproof types have a really thick seal that runs the full length of the bag, and doesn't taper off leaving a hole at the edges like the cheapo bags.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
michael lewis just got sued by Wing Chau for 'the big short'.
his publisher is helping him out with this.
most of this discussion on /. seems to be about non-fiction, vampires, zombies, whatever.
the world of non-fiction journalism is a world apart.
Speaking as an author I would much rather publish an eBook myself.
Speaking as a publisher I would much rather publish eBooks.
Speaking as a reader I am waiting for the dust to settle on the issues of format, compatibility, rights, etc.
The cost of publishing paper books is horrendous. eBooks are a far better solution from the publisher's point of view even with paying Apple 30% because the cost of printing and distribution is about 90% for paper books. With paper books we only got about 50% of the cover price from the distributor. They then marked it up 5% and sold it to the retailer who marked it up further to sell to the public. Meanwhile, the author only got about 2% in most cases. Often the author got almost nothing and on many books the publisher loses since the book never sells enough to cover its initial run costs. It is the few big sellers that make up for this. All of this is why I setup my own publishing company. Vertical integration is the way to go. eBooks give us further ability to save resources, cut costs and vertically integrate. It is also easier to release revised and updated versions.
Try pointing out she's sexist, which is how I look at the whole gay marriage' thing. I don't care one whit about 'sexual orientation'. The only relevant fact is that in many places men can marry women, and women can't marry women. Females are excluded from marrying women because of their gender. Seems obviously sexist to me. It has nothing to do with any sort of 'orientation', protected right or otherwise, at all...it's straight-up sexual discrimination.
She'll try to pull 'They can each marry the opposite gender' crap...yeah, just like white and black people can each use their own different water fountain. Or men and women can go to their own different colleges. 'Separate but equal' is not acceptable, the fact that each gender has their own entirely separate set of people they can marry is not the same thing as non-discrimination.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
Because we all love it when we are prohibited from copying a book because we don't like illegal immigration.
Not to mention that copyright violation is something handled in a court. When you say that I can copy it if I try to be a better person (etc.), what you are really saying is that if I am in a court accused of copyright violation, and I prove to the judge and jury that I have tried to be a better person (etc.) I am free. Can you see why I might not want to have to prove such a thing in a court, under penalty of paying $100000 if the jury thinks I am not a good person? Because that's what you're requiring, whether you're aware of it or not.
There's also the problem that this license only affects people with a conscience. Someone who is really evil is going to copy the book, but someone who is basically good but can't meet your requirement will feel themselves restricted. You are stopping exactly the people you don't want to stop.
I am aware that this is not an open source license anyway, but there's a reason that open source licenses have "no discrimination against fields of endeavor" in them.
You do that by going to a business, at which point they will look over it, decide if it's worth it, edit it, print it, get stores to put it on the shelves, and take a cut of your profits.
I believe these businesses are called 'book publishers'.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
:-) My point was that a known, popular author disintermediating a publisher is a non-event. Someone like the blogger in Minneapolis who segued that into being a popular chick-lit e-book author (six-figure sales) - she gets props.
Well, I like to take notes when I read books, and mark pages of interest. Quite difficult to do with eBooks -- they are not necessarily made for annotation.
She'll try to pull 'They can each marry the opposite gender' crap...yeah, just like white and black people can each use their own different water fountain. Or men and women can go to their own different colleges.
Or men and women can go to their own different toilets, bath houses and locker rooms... 'Seperate but equal' does have it's place sometimes.
"Defending" is a pretty loose term and how you interpret it is really up to you. If you want, you can hop the next plane and join the fighting or you can defend it by other means of support whether verbal or not. The Pro-life vs. Pro-choice debate is a very tough one and I agree on the controversy.
But e-book readers are even better than paper books for reading in the tub.
I found that my kindle fits perfectly into a quart sized freezer baggy (which are a bit thicker than sandwich baggies), and I can still operate all of the controls. Perfect for reading in the tub, and unlike a paper book, there's no worries about the book getting soggy if you dip it into the water - you can dunk the entire baggy protected Kindle into the water and pick it up and continue reading.
The baggy also works well when you want to take it to the beach and protect it from sand... or when you're eating doritos and don't want it to get all cheesy.
And since I already had these baggies in the kitchen, total cost for this protection was a few cents.
Those freezer bags with the plastic zip/seal thing on? I wouldn't trust them to keep my cock dry in the Sahara.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
(just kidding. That's a joke, a reference to the oath scene in Kingdom of Heaven). I actually respect and like your licensing agreement a lot!.
Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright, that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong; that is your oath. [Slaps Balian] And that is so you remember it. Rise a knight, and Baron of Ibelin.
Reminds me of the Careware license Paul Lutus put on Arachnophilia, the first HTML editor I ever used:
"To own Arachnophilia, I ask that you stop whining about how hard your life is, at least for a while. When Americans whine, nearly everybody else in the world laughs. We have so much, and yet we manage to:
* Overlook great examples of beauty around us,
* Miss our most important opportunities,
* Manage to make ourselves miserable by expecting something even better to come along.
Every time we whine about how tough we have it, apart from the fact that we look ridiculous, we make it harder for people around us to appreciate how much we have. We encourage people to overlook the things we do have, the gifts of man and nature. We provide a context to dismiss everything as not good enough, to be miserable in the midst of plenty.
Don't get the wrong impression — many things are unjust, things that should be struggled against until they are made right. This page is for people who can't find even one thing to take joy in, to appreciate. These people not only make themselves miserable, but they infect others with the attitude that the world should right itself, by itself, before they will take simple pleasure in anything.
So here is my deal: stop whining for an hour, a day, a week, your choice, and you will have earned your copy of Arachnophilia. Say encouraging words to young people, make them feel welcome on the planet Earth (many do not). Show by example that we don't need all we have in order to be happy and productive.
This book is available online in the hope it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
A legitimate question for someone that know more then me; Does that statement actually have any force to it? I am curious as a lot of rights we have are hard to forgo. I mean this would be one nice instance if it was possible and the fact the customer is not charged would be a large factor to it. I consistently have heard releasing something to the public domain is a bad idea, but it would drop all pretext for liability. Or am I wrong?
I keep thinking eventually we'll get online communities which serve as a source of reviews and recommendations. Obviously Amazon can provide some of that now, but it could certainly be a lot better if there was a web site really focused on breaking down books by lots of different categories (not just genre and overall ratings, but specifics that might include quality of editing, accuracy of contents, marks for humor, and I don't know what else) along with really useful recommendations to help readers discover new authors.
In an expanded view of this community authors might also be able to coordinate with fans and provide sneak previews in exchange for free proofreading (I don't really want to say editing, because that probably requires a more professional touch, but you can catch a lot of typos with a just a handful of capable readers).
Something like this may already exist out there, but I don't know of it. As much as I talk about it, I should probably put my money where my mouth is and just build the site already, but I've got my hands full with other projects. It's something I'd like to see, though.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
Wow - that reminds me of what got me starting my own publishing company. A book that my collaborator and I had worked for some time on ended up in contract negotiation hell. The contract added the publisher's personal name to the copyright in the first clause, and went downhill from there. Finally, I was hungering to get my own company started anyway, so I decided to publish the book myself, and Legacy Books Press was born.
The good news is that all publishers are not like that. But, unfortunately, some are. Sometimes, knowing when to say "no" to a bad contract is half the battle.
Robert B. Marks
Author, Demonsbane in Diablo Archive
The old music industry business model is dead, and the sooner the big cos get it, the quicker they will find the next big way to generate all their money. Now we are seeing the same with the book industry, all about warehousing costs, and printing costs, well what costs are there really when you hold a copy of the ebook on a server somewhere for download....you have less costs to maintain, less personnel to fill orders, less electricity during winter to keep them warm, the list is endless....I still don't get how the book industry has not woken up to this fact yet, I thought being booksmart, they would have caught on quicker then lets say artists?
Those freezer bags with the plastic zip/seal thing on? I wouldn't trust them to keep my cock dry in the Sahara.
Well unless you cut your cock off and put it entirely inside the bag, of course it's not going to seal.
I always wondered why Glad came out with the Yellow and Blue Make Green Seal, but now I see why -- there are people out there that are unable to make a good seal with traditional non-color coded baggies.
I've taken my kindle into the pool in a baggie (blow a small amount of air inside before sealing to ensure it floats) and haven't had any problems, if you're really worried, use a custom made waterproof case.
Which is strange, because it shouldn't be that hard, it should even be EASIER!
Editing is largely done by your agent or someone they or the author finds, particularly for new writers. Editing is easily outsourced.
Reading mounds of submissions to find winners? Yep, that's also mostly done by agents these days.
Marketing? If they feel the book has great potential to be a HUGE hit, then yes. Regardless, they'll do a cover and all the jacket copy, though it might not be much better than you could do yourself. As for the rest, it'll mostly just be what the author puts into it themselves, and you can easily hire all the same people your publisher does. Only if your publisher really wants to invest in making your book a best seller will they do more than you can do yourself.
Pricing your ebook? They'll choose a price that's so high it torpedoes your sales, forestalling the end of their business model while increasing piracy.
New authors? It's not any easier for a new author to get readers for a $20 hardcover than a $3 ebook, and what you're getting from publishers will affect your print sales a lot more than your ebook sales. Again, this is an area where you can do super well working with a big publisher, but only if you're one of the few who is magically lifted out of the midlist with your first or second book.
Publishers are EXACTLY like record companies. They are dinosaurs clinging to an outdated business model, known for taking way more than their fair share. They're great for the very few big hits, which they dump vast amounts of money into promoting, and they basically suck for everyone else.
Here's what publishers are ACTUALLY good for-- they make loans to authors which usually don't have to be paid back if the book fails. They make their decisions based on how salable they think the book is, based on extensive experience and industry knowledge. They have connections with the right people to get your book noticed, and they have the money and the network to get you store displays if they think it'd be money and effort well-spent. They provide a financial service, first and foremost.
At the end of the article, they talk about agencies becoming book marketing houses over time. Where I see publishing going is towards a venture capital model-- because books do in fact need investors and the connections they bring. This means better terms for the authors. Because 17.5% of ebook sales SUCKS.
Very strange, because I press the "Menu" button on my Kindle and I can see both "Add a bookmark" and "Add a note or highlight". And once I've done that I can list (and jump immediately to) bookmarks, notes and highlights for either my current book, or across the entire device. The bookmark even adds a little folded-page graphic to the top corner of the screen.
Weird, because the Kindle app on iPad and it does not have that feature (and I just checked, to make sure).
The Apple iPad Reader seems to have it, but it doesn't always work with all eBooks.
Press the bookmarky icon in the top right to add a bookmark.
Tap and hold to select text to add a note or highlight. And if it's an Amazon-bought ebook then your note/highlight/bookmark will be shared across all your Kindle apps/devices
The only thing I can't see on the iPad is the ability to list bookmarks/nites device-wide. You have to go into a book and tap the Jump To (book-shaped) icon to see your marks in that book
I think it's always been a challenge deciding which books to purchase; everybody's taste differs, and what I love reading may not mesh with your own preferences. Even with print, your average bookstore stocks tens of thousands of titles with new ones coming in everyday, and the staff is at best familiar with a very small percentage of them. That's why the bulk of customers find a section that interests them and start looking at covers, reading backs and sampling pages. The purchase was always a leap of faith.
I think it's interesting that with digital stores, we're actually beginning to have a lot more information to base purchases on. Besides samples (which on Amazon are 15% of the book, I believe), you now also have access to user reviews in the same page, lists of other books bought by this book's customers, and links back to the author's other works. That's a pretty reasonable amount of info to work with, I think.
I still think there's a discoverability problem right now, especially for new and unknown writers like myself, but I expect that further marketplace innovations will eventually offer some remedy for that. For instance, Amazon's bookstore currently does a lot to reinforce the popularity of a work by making it more visible, but it doesn't have any mechanisms to promote new and undiscovered works. Something as simple as a Fresh Reading box, showcasing books that have very low downloads and few reviews, would help to start leveling out the field.
You can't win, Darth. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
I've daydreamed up some similar website concepts, but just haven't had the motivation to make it happen. There's already Goodreads.com, but I find it a little disorganized for my taste, and I've also had Shelfari.com suggested to me, but haven't checked it out yet.
The part that seems really important to me, which none of these sites seem to get, is browsing. It should be easy and convenient for a reader to burrow down into a specific genre or style of book, and start leafing through titles and short summaries. Instead, they give me ungainly lists based on broad distinctions, or user generated my favorite whatever lists, and I can't be bothered to sort through either.
Ultimately, the right sort of site will pop up, but I think it'll have to be the authors themselves who start it because they're the ones with something at stake. The ebook market is turning them all into entrepreneurs, and their business depends entirely on being able to find and connect with an audience. Once they realize that no one else will do it for them, and that nobody else has their well-being in mind, they'll find a way to band together and make it happen. I think.
Well... I can dream, right?
You can't win, Darth. If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
I wasn't. Seems more a list from someone who's lived a privileged life lacking any severe emotion or physical pain caused by others. There is no mention of reciprocity. Hell, the last one is just damn straight dangerous in a legal situation where you are defending yourself. You admit your wrongs to the police and make amends, you're admitting your faults and the others claims and that WILL be used against you one-sidedly with severe prejudice; they aren't there to do you favors or to do right.
Further, for example, I used to live by #5 as well as the related #3 and 2nd to last. I'm a bloody mess in that respect because of it, and my family life isn't as bad as I know others have it FAR worse than me. When you have an abusive family member, and another or two sitting by, it's hard to live by those rules when even later, you have greater physically power than them, and they remind you of what they did to you to your face or treat you in a manner knowingly with the same intent. Some people just want to fuck you up, and that includes family members, no matter how good you are. You never figure out why you are despised and hated, and while you're own nature is not to quit and to turn the other cheek repeatedly, it takes a lot to not fight back.
When someone calls you worthless repeatedly, when you earned straight As, insulted harshly when not (once the highest grade given out was a B+, and I was the lone person earning that, try to explain that), work multiple jobs during high school, they steal money your co-signed bank account (after all, you are a minor) raiding and ultimately draining it ($37k), when you work hours every week to help out the family business side of things without pay, they hog tie you and throw you into the backyard in broad daylight where you pray the neighbors don't see--because you don't stand "straight," and call you lazy then and even when you are in the tops of your class, eventually go to a top 12 university, and later get into one of the hardest degree programs in the nation, and you still go out of your way to help them and be there, only to be insulted again and again, at some point, most people, will make a, well, what he calls a "mistake."
And yeah, I have the criminal record to show for it. Called in by other immediate family members who watched them abuse me for my entire life. Always fun watching the police laugh at you when they write you up and the family smiling. Gift that gives giving too, esp. when they pull your record up during a simple traffic stop and they decide to give you a worse ticket or offense too.
So you can walk away. Get away. Or give up. I've tried them all. Thus violating the list.
Lists are nice. This one is just ignorant. The world is not some utopia. There are worthless people that are mean, abusive, with clean criminal records, who have called huge strife, ill will, sickness, and greed and even death. There are people who do nothing or do good with criminal records which society rejects.
This is one book I won't be reading.
Yeah, the big name can always do what they want, and isn't really that impressive. The impressive stuff is people getting a fanbase before ever dealing with a publisher.
'Famous people who choose to stop dealing with publishers' is sorta an idiotic slashdot topic. Wake me up when it's 'people who became famous enough outside of traditional publishing that they were able to self-publish from the start'.
I think there are some fanfic writers who managed to do that, actually. But I can't think of them off the bat.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
Pity you don't use google ads anymore. I wanted to click on them.
Ahhh! Interesting -- thank you. When I'd tried that in the past, the zoom icon always popped up, so I'd assumed that that was the extent of the functionality. I suppose this underscores the need for good usability!
Well, what really sucks is the inability in the Kindle to copy text -- arguably, so far I only have one paid book on the Kindle and several of the free classics on the iPad iBook reader. So, it is quite possible that this is not a feature for *any* paid book -- but it's a meaningless shortcoming, in my opinion.
Check out Amanda Hocking - she is to whom I was referring earlier.
Fair reply, but perhaps it doesn't work the same way across all categories. You would be right for fiction novels. However for nonfiction texts, I buy according to what I am or one day want to research. Unless the review is a warning against a badly produced book, reviews for nonfiction are actually irrelevant.
Easy example. I have a strong interest in Buddhism. Seung Sahn in Compass of Zen worked out or re-transmitted an innovation that solves a key problem with many old classical koans. "...Everything is truth, so everything is Buddha. Everything is God, or nature, or mind, or truth. This kind of answer shows metaphysical-style function. However, we encounter many kinds of situations every day that require us to respond more meticulously and clearly. They require some action that works more completely than a mere reflection or explanation of truth. Most situations in our life demand a complete function, some complete action."
This appears on page 232. In a bookstore, a practiced researcher can survey the entire shelf of offerings over a few days, knowing the approximate kinds of answers contained in the 100,000 pages of texts. There is simply no way to determine that a passage like this exists in a text by "heuristic methods" alone.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Hi there.
Your thoughful reply still leaves aspects of the problem to be thrashed out. If a Big Box bookstore has some 400 tomes per topic section, "there they are". However if I were to try to look at a big list on Amazon, somehow I find myself getting lost in clicks. Something like click on a title, click on preview, click on chapter 1, make a new browser tab to open Wikipedia to cross check something about the book, and more. This is especially bad for when I am researching nonfiction topics. Nothing beats just opening the tome to see how a Buddhist author handled the notoriously difficult passage in chapter nine where the Pali source was damaged. I haven't yet been able to answer those kinds of queries online yet. If it were all in a Google Scan of some kind maybe - but not with "first chapter and reviews".
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
(Snarkiness On!)
"new and unknown writers like myself".
You are hereby ordered to send me anything that doesn't offend your copyright stance so that you can cease being unknown, starting with an audience of one. Now! Author, transform and roll out!
(Snarkiness Off)
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
The Kindle reading application officially runs on MacOSX, WIndows, Android and iOS but it also works fine on linux running in Wine. I've got it installed right now in Ubuntu 10.10. And yes, it automatically syncs your reading across all OS's/devices. The only downside is that it doesn't support Adobe's DRM which is what Overdrive uses. If you haven't heard of Overdrive, it's what most public libraries use for serving eBooks.
Think globally but act within local variable scope.
Religious beliefs? Meh. OK, sure, just as soon as I see a religious person respecting other religious beliefs. Ha-ha.
Oh yeah, and what about the children. They don't have any stinking religious beliefs. But do they get any respect? Hell, no. "Come on Timmy, it's time for Sunday School."
Social Credit would solve everything...
Good job men! Any chance for pdf version ?
Recipes for USA bankrupt - http://tinypaste.com/0d66f dd = dollar deluge (printed in the infinity)
You, sir, have the finest licensing agreement that I have ever seen in the introduction of your book. I was genuinely moved.
I enjoyed that too!
However I am in law school and that is a pretty air-tight agreement.
"You are allowed to use it, view it, modify it without permission of the author Eugene Blanchard, provided that you agree to the following"
So let's say you wanted to do the most basic thing with this book, all you wanted to do was read it. That would come under "use" in the above.
So if you want to read this book without the authors permission you would have to fulfill all of the following conditions:
* That you will try to be a better person today than yesterday.
* That you will exercise your body as well as your mind.
* That you will tell the persons dear to you that you love them.
* That you will defend the rights of those who are unable to defend themselves.
* That you will not hurt your family members emotionally or physically.
* That you will respect your elders and care for them in time of need.
* That you will respect the rights of others in their religious beliefs.
* That you will respect the rights of others in their sexual orientation.
* That every man, woman and child has the right to be here and is equal regardless of race, creed or color.
* That you will act honorably in all aspects of your personal and business life.
* That your family is first and foremost the most important thing in your life.
* That when you make a mistake, that you admit it and make amends.
Perhaps the agreement should have been worded differently. That one should try to aspire to these goals rather than that they are pre-requisites for use :P
Even a saint couldn't do all of these things and if Mr. Blanchard wanted to sue, any two-bit lawyer could prove that the defendant fell short of at least one of these clauses.
On another note, I doubt it will come to that and having to read boring contracts all day long, I enjoyed this one :) Thanks.
Well, it's usually enough for me to determine if I don't like something, and save me some money (I'm talkin' to you, Dan Brown).
I just took a peek at Introduction to Data Communications. Nicely done; I plan to fully read it later as it fills in some gaps in my knowledge base! eBooks are drastically over priced as you say and do not seem to benefit the author at all. It is a crime that the price is almost the same (sometimes higher) than hard copy; amazing greed on part of the publishers! I would be willing to pay up to 1/2 of hard cover, but no more; might as well add to my library shelves. There is little incentive to read eBooks other than the novelty. They are often a bit cumbersome, hard to 'underline and annotate' and difficult to manage. Too many conflicting 'types' between too many formats. If not for Open Source like Calibre, it would be hopeless and still borders on such in any case. I applaud you sir! Cheers, Skip Stein Management Systems Consulting, Inc.
Skip Stein Free Agent Management Systems Consulting, Inc. http://www.msc-inc.net www.linkedin.com/in/skipstein
Wait, are you a sibling of mine?
E8B8B
Yeah, it would be nice to read an examination of her methods and fanbase over the years. Wikipedia is not very helpful, although it appears she wrote 17 books before deciding to self-publish them. So basically, she just kept getting turned down, and finally said 'To hell with this, I'll sell the things myself'.
Also, ugh, supernatural romance. Well, I guess someone has to write them if people want to read them. Don't expect me to read them. :)
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
Yeah, tough to believe the guy responsible for 'Buffy' was also responsible for 'Firefly'.
Buffy was not a supernatural romance. Buffy was a horror comedy action show, with actually dangerous supernatural creatures.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
Ah, I speculate that you've never been divorced. horror-comedy-action describes it handily.