Publisher Lunacy

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I'm a fan of boycotts, but considering that OSC has managed to annoy GLBT allies with his public statements and his "Hamlet" rewrite, it'll be tough to sort out which parts of his lack of sales are due to their ebook shenanigans and which are due to his off-putting public persona.

Until this thread, I never heard of this Card guy. Still, I never let the political leanings of authors influence me as to whether or not I'll read their works. If I did, there'd be very few I'd be able to read.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by tecweston

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I am a big fan of Card's "Ender" series but after reading this I will not be giving him another dime of my money.

After reading some of Card's anti-LGBT diatribes, I've decided I can't in good conscience read or recommend any of his books. I haven't quite gotten to the point of buying used copies in order to shred them, but that may be a matter of my income level more than actual qualms.



Trying to drag this back to something resembling the original topic (or at least, away from obviously political topics) ... I expect that, in the future, I'll pay a lot more attention to which publisher an author is with, and will be less likely to try new authors by publishers with anti-ebook policies, even if those books are free promos. After all, why support authors who have chosen to distribute their works through companies that don't respect my reading choices?

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Until this thread, I never heard of this Card guy. Still, I never let the political leanings of authors influence me as to whether or not I'll read their works. If I did, there'd be very few I'd be able to read.

That's surprising, since he's pretty big on the SciFi scene, and his books (such as Ender's Game), have been on a ton of best seller lists.

Now, one of the things that are turning people against Orson Scott Card is that his views are leaking into his writing. Of note is how his apparent homophobia is in his version of Hamlet, when he made King Hamlet a pedophile, and he's wanting to damn his son, to molest him in hell. Also, KH's victims have also turned gay due to being molested by KH.

Some have theorized that Card has been changing, due to some health issues. He's suffered some strokes, and some have said that he's deteriorated, and that his dropping mental health effected his outward view. While he's never been a fan of homosexuality, due to his staunch mormon upbringing (his great great grandfather is Brigham Young), he didn't used to be so outwardly hostile towards gays as he has been since the early to mid 2000's.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by CRussel

However, if you want an electronic version of the book, Might I suggest the Audible book? Stefan Rudnicki is the reader, and it should be quite good. I've "read" several of the Ender books as Audible books, and enjoyed them.

Reading an Audble book is not substitution for actually reading. Sorry, but I feel that suggestion just isnt a good replacement for actual reading.

[Greg Anos]

Welcome home, snake.

Leebase, for many of us around here, it's not the money. It's the inability to spend it, because somebody else is able to sit in judgement about what you can have.

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

well I admit I DID love the Illustrated Classics sold at McDonalds when I was a kid!!! Who remembers those?

eP

I read the classics in comic book form first. Never for school though.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

That's surprising, since he's pretty big on the SciFi scene, and his books (such as Ender's Game), have been on a ton of best seller lists.

Pretty big on the fantasy side, too.

Ender's Game is coming to a movie theater near you next summer, courtesy of the *Family-friendly* movie studio: Summit Entertainment.
Harrison Ford, Abigail Breslin, Hailee Steinfeld among others.
Talk about "abridged and enchanced".

BTW, if MacMillan/Tor dropped OSC, he could easily pull a Konrath and triple his income off ebooks alone.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Hellmark

That's surprising, since he's pretty big on the SciFi scene, and his books (such as Ender's Game), have been on a ton of best seller lists.

That's because the sci-fi books I read are generally from the 1860's to the 1960's. After that, the books I read would be those from authors who continued past the 60's (Herbert, Asimov, etc). Newer stuff rarely made it on my radar. Since I don't follow sci-fi news or awards, how would I know who Card was?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Reading an Audble book is not substitution for actually reading. Sorry, but I feel that suggestion just isnt a good replacement for actual reading.

I read audiobooks all the time

[RWJ]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Tor belongs to Macmillan, which doesn't allow its ebooks to be distributed to libraries. They don't like ebooks. They know ebook DRM can be stripped; if you buy a hardcover, you can't upload it to a filesharing site. And they want to sell more hardcovers, even if they profit just as much from ebooks--they don't *like* ebooks.

Any idea why this is the case? Three years ago, when IIRC is when I got my 505 (for $300!!) and I was the first person I knew IRL to have one, I could see hoping that the ebook problem would just go away, but now that they're available for $68 in Walmart, Kindle's entry price is not too much higher, Amazon sold more in ebooks than hard copy books recently, and Toys R Us is selling a kid-friendly reader ... well it's just not going to happen.

Surely they'd be better off developing a business model that works in reality, rather than insisting on maintaining a business strategy f or the world they wish existed?

[RWJ]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

BTW, if MacMillan/Tor dropped OSC, he could easily pull a Konrath and triple his income off ebooks alone.

He certainly could. I am very happy buying from authors directly.

Barry Eisler released his last book (intel thriller, more American James Bond than Tom Clancy's) exclusively in e format for a few weeks, and has expressed interest in his blog in going exclusively e full stop. Interesting experiment.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by RWJ

Surely they'd be better off developing a business model that works in reality, rather than insisting on maintaining a business strategy f or the world they wish existed?

You just said why: they prefer to live in the world they wish existed.
You seen this Tor editors quote?
http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/john-...eir-customers/

He also offers up comments from Tor husband and wife editors Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden on the matter. Patrick’s seems to be in essence that publishers are trying to do a better job of reaching out to readers, but it’s a little tricky since they hadn’t needed to think about that kind of thing before about ten years ago. This seems reasonable. However, Teresa suggests that the people complaining about the publishers are mostly frustrated would-be authors whose books have been rejected, and that “clever workaround publishing schemes” are the ones that really don’t pay attention to the reader.

That's who makes those decisions.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

All that hassle over the Agency pricing and how publishers' other choice would be windowing ebooks... and they're still windowing ebooks.

John Sargent, liar, liar, pants on fire?

"1. Availability. All the new adult trade books for which we have the rights to publish in e-book format will be available at the first release of the printed book. We will no longer delay the publication of e-books (read: no windowing). Readers were clearly frustrated at the lack of availability of new titles, and the change to the agency model will solve this problem. We are also working hard to make more books available in digital editions. The consumer will have broader choice and much greater availability."

http://blog.macmillanspeaks.com/macm...ity-and-price/

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by darryl

They would benefit from spending less time on lobbying for ever more draconian laws and more time in trying to come up with a viable business model.

My line of thought as well.

Buying off US senators and hiring copyright troll lawyers is an expensive business with little real return, whereby investing in a better, modern business and distribution model will certainly reap more profit for them.

[RWJ]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

You just said why: they prefer to live in the world they wish existed.
You seen this Tor editors quote?
http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/john-...eir-customers/



That's who makes those decisions.

That is mind-blowingly arrogant. Such contempt for readers and writers all at once.

"All these rubes who don't buy our buggy-whips are losers. If we ignore them long enough the newfangled automo-BEEL will go away and they'll have to buy from us again."