Why So Many Newby Writers Without a Device

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by queentess

Ah, but Neil does participate! Which was really his complaint, that some of the boards are basically free advertising and there's no incentive/requirement to participate elsewhere. But I believe those who don't participate won't get much response to their ads, and eventually they'll go away, so I rather think the problem fixes itself.

Also, I think you're (very politely and almost certainly unintentionally) moving goalposts -- the actual opening post had nothing to do with participating, but was rather about not owning an eReader.

Based on the OP, the issue was NOT with post number, post content, karma level, etc. but completely and totally around the fact that some e-authors don't have devices listed in their profile. That's a far cry from the participation discussion that this has (attempted) to evolve into.

Why do so many self-publishing e-authors introduce themselves here to promote their ebooks when hardly any actually own an ebook-dedicated reading device?

[neilmarr]

Points taken. Thanks.

By the way, Anamardoll, the thread you mention was not a plug but a genuine call for advice about ebook-bundling because we'd never tried it before and weren't sure which way to go. The bundling scheme was only in the brainstorming stage at the time and wasn't launched.

We took all MR members' advice on board and launched the scheme according to that advice some time later. We did not mention that launch here, you might notice. Wouldn't dream of it. That's not why I'm a member of MR.

As many fellow-members here will confirm, we don't use this board and its community for plugs or cheap advertising. EVER!

Many members will also confirm that we've sent them free e-Omnibus collections in appreciation of their interest since we started to release them.

Over the past couple of years -- although we now publish about one exclusive new book a week -- we've never plugged a single one here at MR.

If a title or genre applies to a specific and already-running thread (not one I or my tech partner Tony Szmuk has started), I sometimes mention a relevant book and invite anyone contributing to or reading that thread to drop me a line for a free copy in the digital format of their choice with absolutely no strings attached. Many get more books than they actually asked for.

And I do a lot behind the scenes on a PM and email basis to advise members who approach us, as does tech partner Tony on technical matters. In fact, there are those here who have set up successful side-line businesses and made a success of their self-published work as a direct result of our help.

Whether anyone here has ever bought from us, I don't know for sure. What I do know is that I've sent out hundreds or maybe thousands of freebies, to which many members will attest. I gave up keeping count months ago.

During Read an Ebook Week in April, we always open our entire catalogue and invite members here to pick out any two or three titles that catch their eye and then we send them free. In fact, we usually send more than two or three if we can pin down an MR member's favourite genre or a series s/he's interested in from the original request.

I understand your suspicions of malintent and the gently implied charge of hypocrisy on my part, Anamardoll.

But it's really not merited. To see how much we appreciate this community and what we learn here, pop into our site or blog sometime and you will see a prominent link and logo for MobileRead.com as well as for Calibre.

I confine mention of our wee house to the links below and our commitment to DRM-free ebooks.

Best wishes anyway. No offence meant, and I assure you that none is taken. Neil

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Perhaps it is your attitude that rankles, not what you say. Might be worth thinking about. Not everyone can be so consistently superior yet well loved.

The reason I was jumped on was because I own a Sony and I do not own a nook STR. The instigators decided that I was trying to downplay the nook in favor of the Sony when all I was doing was posting my observations in a thread titled something like "are these fonts too light" and the reason they are too light is because they are not properly rendered. But that's for another thread.

Just because you own a different read to the one you are commending on, doesn't mean you have no clue as to what you are saying. I saw the nook STR in the shop and posted on what I saw.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I'll vouch for him in the case of the STR font rendering.

At one point the [edit by moderation] he was engaging called Charis an obscure, esoteric font.

At MR, you really just have to learn to use that Ignore feature as needed, I think.

He could not take anything that didn't say his nook STR was perfect. Heck, no reader is perfect.

[JSWolf]

I do not have eReader. I did not reinstall it when I changed computers. What I do have is a Reader (capital R for Sony).

[anamardoll]

@Neil

Well, and obviously it's entirely possible that I've misunderstood your public persona.

But that's kind of my POINT. There's a lot of comments in this thread that seek to assign motives, ownership (or lack thereof), personalities, intentions, attitudes, and favored-cat-breed to people on Mobile Reads based on information that is really VERY sparse at best.

You can't know if a newbie author has an eReader or not based on some aspect of their profile. You don't know how much they've participated on the board under, say, another name that they keep separate from their author pen name. You don't know how much they do/don't value eReaders (both the devices and the people) or how much time they've sunk into formatting.

Inasmuch as I KNOW I don't know everything about YOU, there are still people in this thread that seem to think they can tell quite a bit about OTHER posters. And I don't myself like that much.

So the next time you draft a thread to rant about stuff you don't like with regards to certain posters, you might want to take a step back from the internet and calm down a bit. Because in as much as you probably wouldn't see much of yourself in a post I could write about YOU, I suspect the newbies you're so shocked haven't shown up here don't see much of themselves in YOUR portrayal of THEM, either.

All the best.

[JSWolf]

Actually, what we know to be true is that there are MR members who do not list the device(s) they have or even all of them if more then one. So even though an author doesn't list any reading devices, this does not mean the author does not own one (or more) or have access to one (or more).

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Actually, what we know to be true is that there are MR members who do not list the device(s) they have or even all of them if more then one. So even though an author doesn't list any reading devices, this does not mean the author does not own one (or more) or have access to one (or more).

True.

A device is a device that's been deviced and no one can talk to a device and be nice,
that is of course unless the device is the famous J. S. Wolf!

(Hope you don't mind, J.S., I needed to use your name for the rhythm to work. )

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

True.

A device is a device that's been deviced and no one can talk to a device and be nice,
that is of course unless the device is the famous J. S. Wolf!

(Hope you don't mind, J.S., I needed to use your name for the rhythm to work. )

I don't see an issue using ADE and Kindle Previewer as the devices when testing out eBooks. I use ADE on my computer to test is some of my conversions/changes will look OK before sending the book to my 650. So I see no reason why an author cannot use ADE without owning a reader

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Also, I think you're (very politely and almost certainly unintentionally) moving goalposts -- the actual opening post had nothing to do with participating, but was rather about not owning an eReader.

Based on the OP, the issue was NOT with post number, post content, karma level, etc. but completely and totally around the fact that some e-authors don't have devices listed in their profile. That's a far cry from the participation discussion that this has (attempted) to evolve into.

But if someone doesn't have anything to read ebooks on, it could be taken as signifying that the person doesn't have an interest in ebooks, and therefore will not participate in the community.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

But if someone doesn't have anything to read ebooks on, it could be taken as signifying that the person doesn't have an interest in ebooks, and therefore will not participate in the community.

Or, you know, that they can't afford one. Or that they live in a country where they can't easily get one. Or they didn't fill out the somewhat-hidden and poorly-described device field in their profile. Or that they haven't filled their profile in YET. Or that they're still learning and intend to participate and are starting from scratch, assuming threads like this don't chase them off entirely. Or a million other things.

Maybe I'm just a big sensitive baby, but I'm rather sick of this Amateur Sherlock Holmes Night where everyone tries to guess people's inner thoughts based on a profile on an online forum. Like, you guys realize I might not ACTUALLY be a big green sentient butterfly right? I mean, you get that, right?

[John Carroll]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Like, you guys realize I might not ACTUALLY be a big green sentient butterfly right? I mean, you get that, right?

You're not a butterfly? I'm very disappointed now.

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Or, you know, that they can't afford one. Or that they live in a country where they can't easily get one. Or they didn't fill out the somewhat-hidden and poorly-described device field in their profile. Or that they haven't filled their profile in YET. Or that they're still learning and intend to participate and are starting from scratch, assuming threads like this don't chase them off entirely. Or a million other things.

Maybe I'm just a big sensitive baby, but I'm rather sick of this Amateur Sherlock Holmes Night where everyone tries to guess people's inner thoughts based on a profile on an online forum. Like, you guys realize I might not ACTUALLY be a big green sentient butterfly right? I mean, you get that, right?

Oh, I know. Like I said, it was a while before I had a reader for myself. When I joined MR, I didn't have one. You can have an interest in ebooks and never use them off a computer.

I say just make the rule where they have to be a member of the community for a while before they can advertise their book. I mean, we have a rule that prevents people from having a signature before being a member 10 days and 10 posts. Let them prove their worth, and if they've done that allow them more freedom in their posts.

And damn, that sucks. I mean, sentient green butterflies are sooo hot.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by John Carroll

You're not a butterfly? I'm very disappointed now.

SCREW YOU, EMO BUNNY!

Incidentally, that is the cutest avatar ever. I actually downloaded your emo bunny story (haven't read it yet) just because I love the idea so much.

Originally Posted by Hellmark

I say just make the rule where they have to be a member of the community for a while before they can advertise their book. I mean, we have a rule that prevents people from having a signature before being a member 10 days and 10 posts. Let them prove their worth, and if they've done that allow them more freedom in their posts.

WHY? Seriously. Why?

I'm a mobile reader. Literally. I come here every morning for the Freebie forum and the advertising forum. I do not care one tiny little bit if Author Joe Bob participated in the NOOK forum to your satisfaction before posting his book in the promotions forum. You feel differently? Great! Stay out of the forum clearly marked AUTHOR SELF-PROMOTIONS and play in the NOOK forum. Everybody is happy, no silly hoops to jump through.

Speaking of hoops: have you never been on a board with posting limits before? There is an ungodly amount of "yeah, no, I agree with Queentess there!" spam posts so that people can get their post count up so that they can actually POST.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

Also, I think you're (very politely) moving goalposts -- the actual opening post had nothing to do with participating, but was rather about not owning an eReader.

So based on the OP, someone with 10,000 posts and 1,000,000 karma still shouldn't be pimping their book if they don't have an eReader device listed in their profile. According to Neil.

Ah, whoops, you're right. I let the tone of the rest of the thread creep in