John Ringo on why he goes with drm-free ebooks (or: How to use the English Language)

[Liviu_5]

Love him or hate him for his often controversial novels and articles, Mr. Ringo is always stating his positions fearlessly and makes for very interesting reading, whether on sf conventions, politics, war or whatever...

In his latest post related to the Scribd controversy he explains why he chooses to ride the ebook wave.

Quote:

"But the music industry is the model that publishers and many writers are following. 'The Wave is Coming! Build the Seawalls Higher! Create Dykes! Stop the Wave! DRM is Your Friend!'

And as is becoming apparent, the mp3 wave is crushing them.

Ebooks are a wave. I grew up, mostly, in Florida. I learned to ride waves, literally, before my first conscious memory. I also learned that there are three ways to deal with waves:

You can fight it and it will crush you.

You can let it pass and lose all it's benefits.

Or you can try to ride it. It may still crush you, but if you ride it right it will carry you safe to shore. (And it's a hell of a ride.)

I don't want to be passed by. I don't want to be crushed. My only choice is to ride. I may live or die riding, but I will have taken the only viable choice."

Whole post here:

http://johnringo.com/Abyss/Default.asp

[HarryT]

You can let it pass and lose all it's benefits.

I find it rather scary that a man who is a professional writer doesn't know how to use apostrophes.

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I find it rather scary that a man who is a professional writer doesn't know how to use apostrophes.

You should see his comments and rants in his Baen Bar forum Ringo's Tavern.
He once posted a very long stream of consciousness excerpt from a book his muse was whispering to him, almost as he was writing it...
I guess that where editors are still useful to get a finished product to us

[NatCh]

Heh, it is a case in point for the value of copy-editors, isn't it?

[delphidb96]

When I'm in stream-of-consciousness writing mode, *I* have problems remembering when to use "its" and "it's". And a blog is *supposed* to be more casual.

Derek

Originally Posted by HarryT

I find it rather scary that a man who is a professional writer doesn't know how to use apostrophes.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I find it rather scary that a man who is a professional writer doesn't know how to use apostrophes.

I find it amusing that you, who consistently uses the wrong conjugation of verbs, are criticizing him.

[NatCh]

Well, HarryT's British, they talk funny over there () ... and they try to keep the English language "pure" -- that's why I just speak "American," it saves a lot of bother.

[slayda]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Well, HarryT's British, they talk funny over there () ... and they try to keep the English language "pure" -- that's why I just speak "American," it saves a lot of bother.

NarCh, that's the "Queen's" English they speak.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I find it amusing that you, who consistently uses the wrong conjugation of verbs, are criticizing him.

Such as what, for example? Please do tell me if I'm getting things wrong; if I don't know, I can't put them right!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Such as what, for example? Please do tell me if I'm getting things wrong - if I don't know, I can't put them right!

Harry, don't worry about it. You're doing fine. But then I have a major advantage over the others here. My wife is from Scotland and I've learned a lot about British English vs. American English. And neither is better then the other. Just different.

[HarryT]

I'm not worried Jon, just curious. I'd like to think that my grammar is reasonably good. If Nate thinks that I'm conjugating my verbs consistently wrongly I'd genuinely like to know what he perceives the problem to be. Either I'm getting it wrong, or he's getting it wrong or, as you say, it's a difference between US and UK English. Whichever way it is, I'd like to know .

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Such as what, for example? Please do tell me if I'm getting things wrong; if I don't know, I can't put them right!

You do it so consistently that I wasn't going to say anything. But then you commented on his errors, so it gave me an opportunity to bring up yours. It looks like you only do it with corporations and websites. Here are a couple examples:

Have iRex given you any indication of when you're likely to get your iLiad, Martin?

amazon.co.uk don't sell eBooks at all, AFAIK.


According to the middle school english teacher I asked, those should be singular conjugations, not plural.

[slayda]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

You do it so consistently that I wasn't going to say anything. But then you commented on his errors, so it gave me an opportunity to bring up yours. It looks like you only do it with corporations and websites. Here are a couple examples:

Have iRex given you any indication of when you're likely to get your iLiad, Martin?

amazon.co.uk don't sell eBooks at all, AFAIK.


According to the middle school english teacher I asked, those should be singular conjugations, not plural.

Nate, I think both of these fall into that ambiguous area of a collective singular, e.g. team. Should you say "the team is" or "the team are"? INMHO it follows colloquial rules. But I believe grammarians don't fully agree. Just my thoughts.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by slayda

Nate, I think both of these fall into that ambiguous area of a collective singular, e.g. team. Should you say "the team is" or "the team are"? INMHO it follows colloquial rules. But I believe grammarians don't fully agree. Just my thoughts.

Yeah, I know. I thought it likely he was following the rules he was taught. But do you want to know how to tell the difference? Do you see that there is no 's' on the end of team? That is how you know it is singular.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

You do it so consistently that I wasn't going to say anything. But then you commented on his errors, so it gave me an opportunity to bring up yours. It looks like you only do it with corporations and websites. Here are a couple examples:

Have iRex given you any indication of when you're likely to get your iLiad, Martin?

amazon.co.uk don't sell eBooks at all, AFAIK.


According to the middle school english teacher I asked, those should be singular conjugations, not plural.

Oh, OK .

That's a difference between British and American English. In British English, names of companies, teams, etc, virtually always take verbs in the plural; in American English, they take verbs in the singular.

Eg, British English says "Sony are shortly releasing a new version of the Reader...", but American English says "Sony is shortly releasing a new version of the Reader..."

Just one of those things; we are both using our own language "correctly".