Posts by Russell Brown
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seriously I did say something related to that discussion.
It's disappointing that you've chosen to turn it into another personal fight with you, and reading your comments its clear you are not addressing the content of what I said but merely that it was me who said them.I didn't choose it, I hate it, but it seemed to me that you were just doing the usual wind-up, and that no one had actually expressed any of the views you recited with respect to this discussion. I had a couple of emails from people who thought so too, and were annoyed. Whatever.
the text to speech function on kindle is a small small thing from my perspective hardly worth worrying about,
Okay, thanks.
but obviously media owners see it as a thin edge of a wedge. That they have managed to get someone to disable it is impressive. its their 'DRM battle' or one of them and they achieved it successfully.
I just don't think disabling technology in those circumstances was very clever.
As Islander has highlighted some writers have fought quite strongly to maintain control of their material in the dangerous digital world. As soon as it hits the web in an un-hindered un-control form they know they're fucked. They know it cos they've watched other media be consumed by it before.
Just a thought: in which case, would it not be wiser for the Authors' Guild to look to ensure that the very secure, DRM-happy, non-internet-capable Kindle was as appealing to consumers as possible? Seriously, it doesn't make sense to turn it into a piracy discussion.
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Rod has the considerable advantage of being gregarious and having interesting things to say. For less gifted individuals, I don't think there's anything wrong with purchasing a little media training.
There are some basic dos and don'ts with getting media coverage. Sure, email your press release to everyone -- but a personal approach and the offer of a clear story angle that not everyone else is getting works wonders.
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It is dependent on people who WANT to have websites,market themselves, go to fan/literary gatherings, are ego-driven to an extent I can not imagine - or who are living in an area with a huge catchment
of internet-savvy readers; have easy access to the gatherings, and the kind of writing that appeals to a large number of people. Gaiman (who I really respect & enjoy,) does it also.I don't think there are many people who can do what Gaiman does: writing longform fiction and a Twitter stream and everything in-between.
But it does seem that media appearances are crucial for new book sales, if only because (in NZ especially) there isn't the budget for conventional marketing.
Did you have a view on the accounting of audiobook sales as ancillary (ie: lesser) royalties by publishers? That seems a rort to me.
Elsewhere ...
Interesting article on small presses in Canada and the way they use the internet.
Penguin's profits were up 26% last year, but other large houses ain't doing so well.
US book sales rose 4.4% to more than 36 billion in the last Book Industry Trends survey. I presume a few people will be very interested in the next one when it's published in May.
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Righto ...
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__him making common cause with one member of the clan by dumping on the others__
that's just a little strange to see written here.
Russell if one indie label dude from the pits of the south island can shake you you're going to have big problem speaking on these issues against well informed lawyer types.I'm not even sure what you mean by that, but I'll try not to bite.
I suppose it's my fault, but this seems to have become yet another conversation about you, Rob.
Do you actually have anything to say about T2S on the Kindle and author royalties? Seriously.
but people here have been more respectful in discussion of copyright and book issues. why?
I think "people here" are respectful as a rule. It's what makes the place work, and I try and maintain that. Now, did you have anything to say on the actual topic or on arguments advanced by other contributors?
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I'm sure you'll find a friend soon, anyway
Keeping it seemly, please ...
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Not at all, although the implications are disturbing: hypothetically, if the organisers wanted to go on a real bender, who's to stop them inviting Rodney Hide?
It has the makings of an extremely dangerous drinking game.
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I suppose I should point out that I do, in a small way, know what I'm talking about, both as a small royalty-earner and a (former) small publisher.
I was amazed at the lack of money (and consequently, marketing) in publishing. But we still published a successful book based on content anyone can get for free from this website, and I personally paid writers and their estates. I was proud of that.
Compare that to freelance print journalism, where not only have publishers never paid an extra cent to use my work online, they haven't increased the dollar rate for my original words in 15 years. Now that sucks.
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spelling it out, I'm applying conditions under which music and film are supposed to survive as outline in discussions here many many times and applying it to books, in a somewhat ironic way.
I missed the irony.
But let's look at this in real-world terms.
We're talking about the Kindle: a device so locked-down that it not only prevents readers from lending books to each other, it provides no way for them to even gift books at their full value. That's quite a big loss of love compared to what people have been doing with printed books for hundreds of years.
And yet the Author's Guild wants to further cleave the Kindle's ability to display a text visually from its function of audio display. That's what it is. Its not someone talented reading a book, it's an audio display by a machine.
I honestly think a more relevant goal would be forcing publishers to stop accounting audiobook revenues as ancillary (ie: lesser) royalties compared to printed books when they are quite obviously a core part of what an author should expect to earn. Bonus: no technology is broken in the process.
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polite challenge = dumping?
me against the world, sucking up to islander?Presumably I misread your irony, but I couldn't see that anyone had actually expressed any of the views you referred to. It didn't seem a good-faith way to enter the discussion.
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