On the one hand, you're right, publishers are part of the problem these days, as they've merged themselves into (or with) corporate monoliths that only care about next quarter's numbers. Capitalism and art don't mix very well.
On the other hand, do you know how many frikkin' queries, proposals and manuscripts your average literary agent or editor has to deal with on a weekly basis? Do you have any idea how big their reading piles get just from manuscripts they've requested? Reading takes time, and there's only so much time available, so, yeah, stuff that might well find an audience can instead fall through the cracks because it didn't grab the reader in the first 5 pages. This is one of the reasons so many editors won't even read stuff that isn't repped by an agent, because the agent is one more filter to help control the flood of words that comes from writers every day. It isn't always fair, but it's not something that can be helped when publishing means picking and choosing a limited number of titles to see print each year.
You found an alternate way to distribute your work to people who want to read it though, so I congratulate you on that. Maybe someday the internet will prove to be as much of a boon for independent writers as it has been for iny musicians.
I agree completely. There are a host of talented people writing great SF today, particular among the Brits.
I don't think Spider is complaining about the writers though, he's complaining about the readers he saw at Torcon, and how their tastes reflect a scary trend of ignorance and lack of imagination in society in general. Great SF makes you think, but apparently less and less people want to be bothered to do that, so they don't want to read anything that challenges them. And he's right, that's sad.
There have been plenty of good suggestions (like Gaiman and Stephenson), but here are some less obvious ones:
1. Syne Mitchell - There's a reason she won the
Compton Crook Award for her debut novel. 2. China Meiville - "Urban" fantasy may be the
best term for it, but the writing is simply
brilliant 3. Susan R. Matthews - an exceedingly talented
SF author 4. Kristine Smith - another great new SF writer 5. P.C. Hodgell - the best fantasy writer you
never heard of
And, while I think the anti-SF people who tell you to dump the genre are insufferable snobs, I do think that doing some reading outside of the genre stuff is a good idea.
There's actually an article about this on the BBC News web site today, though it doesn't say a whole lot more than the original post. It spends it's time emphasizing how this is causing a revival of Go in Japan.
Don't just stop watching the channel (or television entirely). Call/write/email and let them know WHY you're not watching. If they lose enough people, and they know it's because of these obnoxious pop-ups, they may rethink their use.
Unfortunately, the article from Yahoo! that was linked to does not provide any further links that give details of exactly what the Author's Guild is asking for. However, if you follow the link chrisd provided to the Guild's December 2000 release on the same topic, you'll see that what they are asking for is NOT that Amazon stop acting as a broker for selling used books. Instead they ask that:
For the sake of authors, publishers, readers and Amazon,
a compromise must be found that will not discourage
writers from writing or consumers from buying new books.
We believe the compromise is simple and straightforward:
restrict the blue-box link to out-of-print and collectible
books and list all used book offerings after all new
versions of a title are listed.
In other words, if the book is still in print, only list the available used copies farther down the page, rather than featuring them right at the top by the price info for the new book. While you can argue how much effect that might actually have on how many new rather than used books, it still seems like a reasonable enough request, and is certainly not what some of the other posters have seemed to try and turn it into, which is a demand that Amazon not sell used books at all.
Maybe relying on a Yahoo! news story (assuming everyone who posted about this even bothered to read that) for all of the facts isn't the best way to go?
The Amber Chronicles have been reprinted, as _The Great Book of Amber : The Complete Amber Chronicles_ [Eos (Trade); ISBN: 0380809060], which has all 10 books in it.
Of course, I wish they'd done it as two separate books for the Corwin and Merlin series, since I think the former is *far* superior.
I've seen lots of comments about the ads in the free version, and comments about how much people love/hate other versions of Opera, but can anyone comment on how things have changed for 5.0 besides the addition of a sponsored version? The web site mentioned better javascript support, some sort of intergrated search feature and an integrated instant messenger. Those last two certainly sound like unneeded bloat to me, so I was wondering if anyone had actually used this version and could comment on how it compares to the 4.x versions?
Exactly. While people may like to look at the poor shareholders (who admittedly got screwed by mp3.com's poor decision), I'm feeling more sorry for those independent artists who were using mp3.com to distribute (or just give people a place to hear) their music. I personally have found plenty of very good stuff there (like Basque...mmmm) If this ends up being the end of mp3.com they're the ones who are really getting hurt.
Gee... you'd almost think the RIAA had some sort of interest in seeing mp3.com fail and just happened to get lucky thanks to my.mp3.com....
Maybe I'm just overly cynical, but I'd bet the RIAA is more excited about the possibility of bankrupting mp3.com and cutting off all the legitimate independent artists who use it for distribution than they are about shutting down my.mp3.com (which was a really stupid thing for mp3.com to get involved in in the first place).
You want to hold up that article as an example of "the view of *BSDers"? I doubt that article represents the view of most BDS advocates any more than the flames sent the way of any author who says something unflattering about Linux represent the view of most Linux advocates.
I am not a fan of MP3s as a way of replacing CDs, but I think that the focus of this article on how wonderful it is to be able to stare at your CD collection is a bit silly.
The reasons I still like CDs over MP3s are simple. First, I like to listen to music without having to sit at my computer. Second, I usually listen to entire albums rather than just songs, so I don't need or want to deal with playlists. Third, and most important of all, my stereo is a better sound system than my computer.
Obviously as more MP3 playing devices come on the market (and the price starts to come down) and as better sounding MP3-like standards come into existence my opinion on the matter will likely change, but given the way things currently stand I'd never even consider switching over to MP3s as my primary music format.
Having said that, I do love them as a way of supplementing CDs and as a really great way for artists who aren't on major labels to get their music heard. Frankly the fact that the author sort of seemed to sneer at independent artists by referring to them with terms like "bush league" would have left me disliking the article no matter what else he had to say. The fact that the "bush league" artists stand to gain so much from MP3s are the reason I cheer every time the RIAA fails to restrict the format, even though I personally don't have a hard drive full of them.
I don't understand why every time it is suggested that perhaps the cause of Linux is better served by a bit of restraint and maturity someone feels the need to haul out "freedom of speech" as a defense for acting like an eight-year old.
Yes, you have the right to say whatever you like... and we have the right to ask you to stop behaving like a jerk and embarrasing the rest of us.
Slashdot Mirror
On the one hand, you're right, publishers are part of the problem these days, as they've merged themselves into (or with) corporate monoliths that only care about next quarter's numbers. Capitalism and art don't mix very well.
On the other hand, do you know how many frikkin' queries, proposals and manuscripts your average literary agent or editor has to deal with on a weekly basis? Do you have any idea how big their reading piles get just from manuscripts they've requested? Reading takes time, and there's only so much time available, so, yeah, stuff that might well find an audience can instead fall through the cracks because it didn't grab the reader in the first 5 pages. This is one of the reasons so many editors won't even read stuff that isn't repped by an agent, because the agent is one more filter to help control the flood of words that comes from writers every day. It isn't always fair, but it's not something that can be helped when publishing means picking and choosing a limited number of titles to see print each year.
You found an alternate way to distribute your work to people who want to read it though, so I congratulate you on that. Maybe someday the internet will prove to be as much of a boon for independent writers as it has been for iny musicians.
I agree completely. There are a host of talented people writing great SF today, particular among the Brits.
I don't think Spider is complaining about the writers though, he's complaining about the readers he saw at Torcon, and how their tastes reflect a scary trend of ignorance and lack of imagination in society in general. Great SF makes you think, but apparently less and less people want to be bothered to do that, so they don't want to read anything that challenges them. And he's right, that's sad.
There have been plenty of good suggestions (like Gaiman and Stephenson), but here are some less obvious ones:
1. Syne Mitchell - There's a reason she won the
Compton Crook Award for her debut novel.
2. China Meiville - "Urban" fantasy may be the
best term for it, but the writing is simply
brilliant
3. Susan R. Matthews - an exceedingly talented
SF author
4. Kristine Smith - another great new SF writer
5. P.C. Hodgell - the best fantasy writer you
never heard of
And, while I think the anti-SF people who tell you to dump the genre are insufferable snobs, I do think that doing some reading outside of the genre stuff is a good idea.
Good luck.....
> Atheism has no more substantial foundataion for ethics than simple personal preference.
This is, of course, nonsense, as it assumes that the only possible source for moral or ethical
values is the belief in a deity or deities.
There's actually an article about this on the BBC News web site today, though it doesn't say a whole lot more than the original post. It spends it's time emphasizing how this is causing a revival of Go in Japan.
Dr. Smoe
Don't just stop watching the channel (or television entirely). Call/write/email and let them know WHY you're not watching. If they lose enough people, and they know it's because of these obnoxious pop-ups, they may rethink their use.
Unfortunately, the article from Yahoo! that was linked to
does not provide any further links that give details of
exactly what the Author's Guild is asking for. However,
if you follow the link chrisd provided to the Guild's
December 2000 release on the same topic, you'll see that
what they are asking for is NOT that Amazon stop acting
as a broker for selling used books. Instead they ask
that:
For the sake of authors, publishers, readers and Amazon,
a compromise must be found that will not discourage
writers from writing or consumers from buying new books.
We believe the compromise is simple and straightforward:
restrict the blue-box link to out-of-print and collectible
books and list all used book offerings after all new
versions of a title are listed.
In other words, if the book is still in print, only list
the available used copies farther down the page, rather
than featuring them right at the top by the price info
for the new book. While you can argue how much effect
that might actually have on how many new rather than used
books, it still seems like a reasonable enough request,
and is certainly not what some of the other posters have
seemed to try and turn it into, which is a demand that
Amazon not sell used books at all.
Maybe relying on a Yahoo! news story (assuming everyone
who posted about this even bothered to read that) for all
of the facts isn't the best way to go?
Dr. Smoe
The Amber Chronicles have been reprinted, as
_The Great Book of Amber : The Complete Amber
Chronicles_ [Eos (Trade); ISBN: 0380809060], which
has all 10 books in it.
Of course, I wish they'd done it as two separate
books for the Corwin and Merlin series, since I
think the former is *far* superior.
I've seen lots of comments about the ads in the free version, and comments about how much people love/hate other versions of Opera, but can anyone comment on how things have changed for 5.0 besides the addition of a sponsored version? The web site mentioned better javascript support, some sort of intergrated search feature and an integrated instant messenger. Those last two certainly sound like unneeded bloat to me, so I was wondering if anyone had actually used this version and could comment on how it compares to the 4.x versions?
Dr. Smoe
Exactly. While people may like to look at the poor shareholders (who admittedly got screwed by mp3.com's poor decision), I'm feeling more sorry for those independent artists who were using mp3.com to distribute (or just give people a place to hear) their music. I personally have found plenty of very good stuff there (like Basque...mmmm) If this ends up being the end of mp3.com they're the ones who are really getting hurt.
Gee... you'd almost think the RIAA had some sort of interest in seeing mp3.com fail and just happened to get lucky thanks to my.mp3.com....
Maybe I'm just overly cynical, but I'd bet the
RIAA is more excited about the possibility
of bankrupting mp3.com and cutting off all the
legitimate independent artists who use it for
distribution than they are about shutting down
my.mp3.com (which was a really stupid thing for
mp3.com to get involved in in the first place).
*sigh*
Lately I've been thinking about switching from a
mouse to a trackball, so I have two questions:
- Does using a trackball really make a difference?
- Is there any brand/model of trackball that
anyone would care to recommend?
You want to hold up that article as an
example of "the view of *BSDers"? I doubt
that article represents the view of most
BDS advocates any more than the flames sent
the way of any author who says something
unflattering about Linux represent the
view of most Linux advocates.
I am not a fan of MP3s as a way of replacing
CDs, but I think that the focus of this article
on how wonderful it is to be able to stare at
your CD collection is a bit silly.
The reasons I still like CDs over MP3s are
simple. First, I like to listen to music without
having to sit at my computer. Second, I usually
listen to entire albums rather than just songs,
so I don't need or want to deal with playlists.
Third, and most important of all, my stereo is
a better sound system than my computer.
Obviously as more MP3 playing devices come
on the market (and the price starts to come
down) and as better sounding MP3-like standards
come into existence my opinion on the matter
will likely change, but given the way things
currently stand I'd never even consider switching
over to MP3s as my primary music format.
Having said that, I do love them as a way of
supplementing CDs and as a really great way for
artists who aren't on major labels to get their
music heard. Frankly the fact that the author
sort of seemed to sneer at independent artists
by referring to them with terms like "bush
league" would have left me disliking the article
no matter what else he had to say. The fact that
the "bush league" artists stand to gain so much
from MP3s are the reason I cheer every time the
RIAA fails to restrict the format, even though I
personally don't have a hard drive full of them.
I don't understand why every time it is suggested
that perhaps the cause of Linux is better served
by a bit of restraint and maturity someone feels
the need to haul out "freedom of speech" as a
defense for acting like an eight-year old.
Yes, you have the right to say whatever you
like... and we have the right to ask you to
stop behaving like a jerk and embarrasing the
rest of us.
Check out this page for the details (as provided by Ticketbastard).