Quote:
Originally Posted by SeaKing
I will be honest and say up front that I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books. I did go to the first 2 movies out of curiosity and because a friend was interested.
I decided that Harry Potter was too cute and silly for me. Now don't get me wrong. I love Kung Fu Panda movies, and those movies with the maniacal psychotic penguins and the zoo animals that go back to the wild. Harry Potter, though, leaves me cringing.
Now with that disclaimer, I will say if you ever think KT Rowling is anything other than a self serving greedy egomaniac that struck it rich, you are deluding yourself. She is just playing to her self serving high brow friends with this pap about paper books, old book stores, and musty libraries being somehow holy.
Remember she owns a castle or two now. She ain't ordinary people no more if she ever was. No way, no how.
|
Uhm, your off on several counts.
First off, It is J.K. Rowling.
As far as the whole only paper books thing, well, you're wrong again. While JKR was hesitant to migrate to ebooks, it wasn't because of things having to be tangible. She is a kindle user herself. Part of the reason she's held off on ebook copies of Harry Potter, is because she wants control over them, and also format stabilization. When things are all finished with Pottermore, it will be one site to buy the books from, and she'll get full control over how the ebooks appear. It is widely known she is very protective of her work, and due to past experiences, demands final approval over new projects using her intellectual property.
One thing she wanted was that the ebooks look the same, regardless of format. Considering the "meatgrinder" that some of the ebook retailers use, that isn't always possible, plus many publishers don't give a high level of polish to ebooks, especially in regards to graphics and illustrations. Pottermore is something she's been working on for the past ~2 and a half years, getting the legal matters and logistics sorted out, so her wishes can be respected. Considering how whored out Harry Potter has been so far, would you blame her for wanting to be careful about agreeing who can do what with her work now?
Quote:
Originally Posted by anamardoll
|
Yeah, that's from the Article. JKR, Pottermore, etc have not slagged the fans at all. Generally they've been apologetic, and saying that they were underprepared for the onslaught they received, because they didn't expect the demand to be quite what it was. Considering how much server side work needs to be done, it really isn't surprising, because it can be very easy to be overwhelmed when you have hundreds of thousands of people trying to access things all at the same time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SeaKing
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shopaholic - quote -
How on earth can you possibley make such a statement when you admit you know nothing about the woman?? You're simply crucifying her because she has money & made good. Wow! Unbelievable.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
What you say is untrue. I never said (or admitted as you say) I "know nothing about the women." I said I hadn't read her books, just seen 2 of the movies. I have read a lot about the author herself. It is kind of hard to avoid it.
Lots of authors have made tons of money. Not a problem to me. Lots of people have made tons of money. Not a problem to me.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
miguel1626 - quote -
This is... biased, to say the least. Apparently you don't like HP, and you don't like rich people, so JK Rowling must be the wicked witch of the west.
That's not to say that I agree with her flimsy excuses regarding HP ebooks, though...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"biased" of course! It is my opinion about the author summing up everything I have learned about her. HP was worth 2 movies to me. After that I shut the door. I have done that on many subjects.
Rich people. I discussed that above. However, my point was that Rowling is being elitist and kowtowing to the "high brow literary set."
And we agree on her excuses being flimsy. Just look at it in the light of her being an elitist. My guess is that if the iPad had been out when she made her initial decision about eBooks, she might have accepted the idea. The iPad has been accepted by many ot the "elite" like the New York Times and Book Review so that may have moderated her thoughts.
|
The problem is, there is lots going around about JKR that isn't true. Because she is so well known, she is a bigger target for BS. It seems like every few weeks, I'm seeing an article claiming she said this or that, that pretty much immediately contradicted by something she says or does. For instance, for years there have been articles about how she hates eBooks, that paper books are the only way to read, etc because of the lack of Harry Potter eBooks, and then she states that she's a kindle user, and loves the convenience of ebooks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vxf
I was actually talking about SONY - although that might have not been clear. Promising and making a big deal out of a HP ebook reader and then failing to deliver and never mentioning it, like it never happened - that is insulting to customers.
But I guess it applies to the Pottermore site as well - and, by extension, to Rowling, since she made a big deal out of cutting out the middlemen. But that's a different story.
|
She has wanted to cut out the middlemen, but, you can't really cut them out 100%. Really, it is just boiled down to being only Sony. Still, one point of control for quality is better than several dozen. Look at how people are complaining about issues with King's 11/22/63 having issues with the fonts and spacing, and how it seems to be limited to Kobo.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pastanley
Seriously who cares about the Harry Potter ebooks? JK is done with the franchise. The printe books are bountiful and much cheaper.
|
Cheaper than what? No ebooks are currently for sale, and while a timeframe has been established for when they will go on sale, no prices have been set.