Authors United, allies, demand government intervention

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by Fiat_Lux

Since when has any mainstream publisher been the first publisher of unusual, quirky, offbeat, or politically risky ideas?

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Not in living memory.

I think think you stepped off into silliness.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Rizla

I think think you stepped off into silliness.

[murg]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Hardcastle, I agreed with your points up until:

Boy, I'm glad you found those books. The indie e-books I've purchased (which are usually reprints by mid-list genre authors whose paper books went out of print) tend to be the opposite of what you describe. I Alf them and clean them up a bit, but it can be some work.

I support indie books and am glad that the e-book market has made it viable to bring these niche titles back into print. But I can't kid myself that, on the whole, the indies do a better job than the big guys. That is just demonstrably wrong.

I bought a omnibus of Tom Clancy's earlier novels (BPH published). One pf the novels had over a thousand scan and other errors in it, including whole pages that didn't scan properly. And, since this was an omnibus, the ebooks included had been being sold for a while before they were aggregated into the omnibus. The PBH's just don't care about the quality of their ebooks.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by cvkemp

We all have to make a living and authors are no different. While there are a few authors that make big money, most do not really make a living at what they love to do.

Right.
And all the groups purporting to represent them do a lot of handwringing about it and very little else.

But in the US, they have no problem ranting and raving at one of the few outfits doing anything to help authors help themselves, mostly because authors availing themselves of the opportunity have been too successful on this particular sight.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

That was the whole point.
Silliness on both sides of a silly argument.
This is the US we're talking about.

There is no serious political thought to be found anywhere.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The funny thing is, the more the self-important ones whine, the more transparent their motives become.

Objectively, the Guild is pro-indie because they want to keep major-published books at higher prices, allowing self-publishers to charge much less and still make a living. Also, the Guild opposes Amazon, whose remarkably high self-published eBook market share makes indie authors more vulnerable to their whims than major-published authors.

Objectively, those pushing for relatively low major publisher prices are the self-publishers' nemesis.

When opinions go so contrary to self-interest, motives don't matter.

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Discounting? They don't complain of B&N discounting. Or Costco discounting even though they get ripped off under deep discount accounting. They don't complain about Apple or Nook or Kobo ebooks. Why? Because those folks play the payola game.

OK. I'll bite. Who is paying off whom?

I'm especially interested in any Costco payola evidence, since, unlike Apple, Nook, and Kobo, we frequently patronize Costco.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

That was the whole point.
Silliness on both sides of a silly argument.
This is the US we're talking about.

There is no serious political thought to be found anywhere.

Not entirely true.
Just none within the confines of the major political parties or the publications beholden to them.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Not entirely true.
Just none within the confines of the major political parties or the publications beholden to them.

Outside or inside there is no meaningful debate.
Just venting. Posturing. Demonizing. And lots of lying. (Though that is integral to the field anyway.)
Debate involves exchanging of ideas and all any camp does these days is propaganda. No clean hands to be found anywhere. The greek guy with the lamp would shoot himself.

And that is what the self-important ones are involved in: propaganda, loaded with charged words, false accusations, hand-waving, and posturing, hoping the government will protect them from the realities of a changing world. They've been called on it:

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2014/1...-hachette.html

Look to the list of signatures of last year's campaign and you only see writers who succeded under the old rules trading on their celebrity, mortally afraid that the new rules will render them irrelevant. Look to LeGuin's rants, using political language of fearmongering, of "disappearing" people. That is not rational discourse, that is propaganda.

They want a political solution so they use the tools of the modern politician.

And even there they are behind the times because the propaganda of the day no longer relies on patroitism but rather on populism; politicians no longer pretend to be working for the good of the nation, just the self-interest of the voters. Even their posturing is last century.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by murg

I bought a omnibus of Tom Clancy's earlier novels (BPH published). One pf the novels had over a thousand scan and other errors in it, including whole pages that didn't scan properly. And, since this was an omnibus, the ebooks included had been being sold for a while before they were aggregated into the omnibus. The PBH's just don't care about the quality of their ebooks.

I accept that you got a crappy scan from a major publisher. There's always exceptions to rules. But on the whole can you honestly say that indie books are presented more professionally than books from the majors?

It hasn't been my experience and I'd wager that if major e-books were that terribly formatted as the norm, it would be a big story.

Again, I tend to buy more books from indies and small presses than the biggies. But the indies I tend to read are authors who have previously been published by a major publisher. Because that fact tells me they have at least some talent.

I'm not trying to run indies down. Just trying to keep it honest.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I accept that you got a crappy scan from a major publisher. There's always exceptions to rules. But on the whole can you honestly say that indie books are presented more professionally than books from the majors?

It hasn't been my experience and I'd wager that if major e-books were that terribly formatted as the norm, it would be a big story.

Again, I tend to buy more books from indies and small presses than the biggies. But the indies I tend to read are authors who have previously been published by a major publisher. Because that fact tells me they have at least some talent.

I'm not trying to run indies down. Just trying to keep it honest.

My experience has been that new Indies on a budget often have editing problems in their initial releases, but that if their books find an audience subsequent books are better edited and earlier works get a makeover.

Big publishing houses are likely to skimp on quality control with genre fiction backlist titles.

If you have a limited tolerance for that, don't buy unless reader reviews confirm proper editing. If there are spelling or grammatical problems someone will mention it in their review.

I seldom buy unless I like what other readers are saying. .

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Phogg

If you have a limited tolerance for that, don't buy unless reader reviews confirm proper editing. If there are spelling or grammatical problems someone will mention it in their review.

I just buy the books I want to read and clean them up with Sigil or Calibre.

I was just disputing the assertion made earlier that big publishers put out sloppy books while indies put out hand-crafted miracles of formatting.

[DiapDealer]

Dear Gummint,

Please beat up Amazon for me. But not so much that they can't still sell a metric crap-ton of my books.

KThanksBye

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Dear Gummint,

Please beat up Amazon for me. But not so much that they can't still sell a metric crap-ton of my books.

KThanksBye

All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Dear Gummint,

Please beat up Amazon for me. But not so much that they can't still sell a metric crap-ton of my books.

KThanksBye

P.S. Oh an keep your nose out of my Mary Wonna patch.

'Dude, thus stuff is frackn awesome'

Shut it, iz talking to the po here dude

'where? they here? run...'

[murg]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I accept that you got a crappy scan from a major publisher. There's always exceptions to rules. But on the whole can you honestly say that indie books are presented more professionally than books from the majors?

It hasn't been my experience and I'd wager that if major e-books were that terribly formatted as the norm, it would be a big story.

Again, I tend to buy more books from indies and small presses than the biggies. But the indies I tend to read are authors who have previously been published by a major publisher. Because that fact tells me they have at least some talent.

I'm not trying to run indies down. Just trying to keep it honest.

But if I'm paying $12.99 or $14.99 like the publishers want, I expect that they've at least proofed the scan errors. And, they are professional publishers, who make a big deal about the level of service they put into producing books.

Since the indie books are a lot cheaper, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.