One of the things Macmillan could do to ease customers’ fears about dynamic prices (or the lack thereof) is to actually go through their back catalog and drop the prices of ebooks that are several years old. For instance, here’s a Steven Brust novel with an ebook that costs almost twice as much as the mmpb. Or this Vinge novel.
If they want readers to believe them when they say they’ll reduce prices over time, they should already be doing it.
… today was a very productive day. I didn’t have very much internet time, but I guess that’s why it was productive.
I did end up consigning one character to the lonely limbo of my memory when I cut her completely from the book. Too bad. I liked her very much.
I also ended up with a net loss in words, despite adding a couple short scenes. Revising the sequence without the character sped things along quite a bit, although I personally still feel her loss.
The book will be better for it–simpler and more unified.
1) Darth Vader – James Earl Jones = David Prowse in a plastic mask reading Vader’s lines on set. I can’t help but laugh when I hear him say “I want those plans!” via Keith Calder
2) An officer shoots and kills a criminal, in the officer’s own words.
3) Every news report must be structured like this. via madrobins
4) Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist posts a promotional excerpt of a new GRRM story in an upcoming anthology, and the comments explode with butt-hurt Song of Ice and Fire fans complaining about the delay in the latest book. Normally I suggest skipping comments, but here the comments are delicious. I’m sure someone out there has already made a ASOIAF/DOWNFALL spoof, yeah?
5) The Scale of the Universe. It’s beautiful. It’s like church for atheists.
6) “Will they follow in the lusty steps of their forebears, the Golden Girls?” The nuttiest conservative Christian rant on gays I’ve seen in a while. The author, who apparently has a slight problem with gays who won’t read the articles he emails to them, thinks The Golden Girls sitcom turned a generation of young men into homosexuals, and it’s so wacky (and quotable! “Personally, I do not look forward to the day when we’re having moral debates about robot sex, gay jetpacks or houseplant marriage”) that there were points where I was sure it was satire. Or irrational hate. Or maybe satire again. No, that’s just more hate. Then I saw the link at the bottom to The Dark Underside of America’s Obsession with Cat Ownership and I swear I have no idea what to think (except: “Gay jetpacks?? I’ll take two!”) via Jay Lake.
7) More Macmillan vs. Amazon.com, discussed on Absolute Write. It’s an 8-page thread as of the time of this posting, but very informative. It’s also pretty easy to tell who are the knowledgeable voices and who aren’t. You even get to see an example of mansplaining with the wild (which is so incredibly rare, I know).
Now that the Macmillan/Amazon.com fight is over (supposedly, since none of the Tor novels I look at on their site are available) we can focus on the greatest, most hated holiday of all.
Valentine’s Day.
It’s only two weeks away, and it’s justifiably hated by single people. People in love can spend a couple of bucks (or even better, some time and thought) to come up with something nice for their loved ones–which they ought to be doing year round anyway, but never mind. For people who are single but don’t want to be, it can be the loneliest day of the year. Believe me. I remember.
For you singletons, happy or un-, I have a gift. Actually, I have a contest! Here’s how it will work: Post a story, either in the main blog or on LiveJournal (sorry, Facebook people, but you have to go to the blog to enter), of the worst, most pathetic true tale of dating hell you can come up with. Rape, murder and pedophilia are off limits–those stories are hard for me to bear. Everything else will be fair game. You an enter as many times as you like.
On, let’s say, Thursday, I’ll link to all the stories and choose my favorite three (assuming I get that many) and let you readers choose the winner.
The prize will be a copy of Child of Fire, of course. Single folks will be able to shut out the tawdry pink hearts and chocolates with the nasty cherries inside and read a romance-free book about shadowy killers, a disintegrating community, and cleansing rage. Yeah, you heard right. Cleansing, cleansing rage.
Of course, you don’t have to be single or lonely to enter. Everyone is welcome, although if you win the book and you already have someone in your life who will be treating you special on that day, maybe you can give it to someone else who might enjoy it (and I’ll leave it up to your judgement whether you tell them why or not.
Let the stories begin!