Kindle users give 1 star rating to book with delayed ebook release

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by charleski

I hope anyone taking part in this protest is also giving 1-star reviews to books that don't come out in MMPB at release.

If it's wrong to make people wait 3 months for an ebook, surely it's even more evil to make them wait a year for the paperback?

So making a book available to someone, for a given platform (print) for a given cost, is equivalent to refusing to sell to someone for another platform (eReaders/Computers) for any price.

Nice logic.

[Pushka]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Actually, you've just proven me right. Ebooks are not some new phenomena, they've been around for a decade and more, and have steadily increased in importance.

Go away, troll.

(Oh, and please identify who your husband is first, so I can blacklist him, ty)

Nasty piece of work that - calling someone a troll simply because you dont agree with them. Proven you right? You are dreaming. You are unable to answer any of my questions put to you. Others disagree with me, and I with them, but at least we can reasonably discuss and listen without reverting to the 'you are a troll' chestnut.

Oh, and no need to blacklist, the midland UK is just not his target audience.

[LS650]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

We went to the Bahamas for Christmas, and I was amazed at the number of kindles I saw by the pool. Probably 10% of the reading public.

To be fair, folks sitting by a pool in the Bahamas at Christmas probably aren't representative of your average reading public...

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by LS650

To be fair, folks sitting by a pool in the Bahama at Christmas probably aren't representative of your average book purchaser...

What do you mean? Not representative? The only reason I didn't vacation this year in the Bahamas was because my servants were sick and couldn't take care of the children. Are you saying I, and my servants are not representative of the general reading public? I'll have you know that Jives, my butler, reads to me several times a week from a jewel encrusted Kindle after talcuming my bum

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Pushka

Nasty piece of work that - calling someone a troll simply because you dont agree with them.

No, I'm calling you a troll because your data actually completely agreed with me (Ebooks are not new, and books come to market in a fraction of the period ebooks have been rising in importance) while you tried to make out that it didn't. And since you have no fear of blacklisting, you won't mind providing the name then.

I appreciate that you're angry that your Husband failed to negotiate a decent contract and has been shafted by his publisher, but lashing out at others doesn't help.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by charleski

I hope anyone taking part in this protest is also giving 1-star reviews to books that don't come out in MMPB at release.

If it's wrong to make people wait 3 months for an ebook, surely it's even more evil to make them wait a year for the paperback?

If the publisher were releasing ebooks at MMPB prices, I doubt there'd be this kind of protest.

The reason publishers are delaying is solely so that people don't get used to paying just $10 for the ebook--because then the public might pressure them to take less profit from ebooks.

[Pushka]

Originally Posted by LS650

To be fair, folks sitting by a pool in the Bahamas at Christmas probably aren't representative of your average reading public...

Yep.

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

I appreciate that you're angry that your Husband failed to negotiate a decent contract and has been shafted by his publisher, but lashing out at others doesn't help.

And if you could read you would find out that he hasn't been shafted at all - that was never my point - perhaps go back a couple of pages and do some reading if you could manage that.

[ficbot]

Originally Posted by Pushka

Seriously, are people that self indulged they cannot wait a month?

Ok, you have ignored every post I have made that directly rebuts this point of yours, so clearly you don't care at all about paying customers who might send profit to your husband, but really, this is getting insulting. It is 'self-indulgent' to want to pay an author money for their work? It is 'self-indulgent' to want an author's work to be available to the widest possible audience? It is 'self-indulgent' that people care about the future of publishing?

I realize that writing as an art would not exist without caring authors, but writing as a *business* would not exist without paying customers. Absent that, you're all artistes who are, like Emily Dickinson, putting everything into a drawer for your own amusement.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by ficbot

Ok, you have ignored every post I have made that directly rebuts this point of yours, so clearly you don't care at all about paying customers who might send profit to your husband, but really, this is getting insulting. It is 'self-indulgent' to want to pay an author money for their work? It is 'self-indulgent' to want an author's work to be available to the widest possible audience? It is 'self-indulgent' that people care about the future of publishing?

I realize that writing as an art would not exist without caring authors, but writing as a *business* would not exist without paying customers. Absent that, you're all artistes who are, like Emily Dickinson, putting everything into a drawer for your own amusement.

Awesome, you just gave me an idea for a story. The Emily Dickinson Drawer. Right, I'm off to write that right now and then stick it in a drawer.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by LS650

To be fair, folks sitting by a pool in the Bahamas at Christmas probably aren't representative of your average reading public...

I realize that. We were definately the peasant class - but that is okay, the same sunshine, and my kindle worked just fine.

[zelda_pinwheel]

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[Pushka]

Originally Posted by ficbot

Why spend your normal life working for money so that you can buy the things you need or want, only to be turned away at point of sale because the publishing industry has decided it does not want authors to have your money?

I really don't think it's about 'punishing' individual authors. It's about using the only means we have to contact authors and publishers and actually get them to *notice* that we're contacting them, to let them know that they can make more money from customers who want to buy their stuff, by simply digging their heads out of the sand and *selling* books to interested buyers. Some of us are very passionate about books and reading and are gunning for a better future where authors sell books and customers buy them and everyone wins. And frankly, we are both hurt and deeply, deeply puzzled that some in The Biz seem intent on making this so very hard.

What is 'destroying your hard work' is interested customers with money in their hands saying 'here, take it!' and then being told 'no, not you.' By the time your book eventually rolls around to being available, you may have already lost their attention and they have moved on to other things. Lost sale for you. At least this way, you know *why* you've lost the sale. And when the time comes to negotiate your next contract, you'll know what you have to do if you want to get this sort of customer back.

Ok, my apologies that I didnt respond to your posts Ficbot. So I will tend to this now. And your points are valid ones to make. My main challenge in this thread is really not about whether books are made available on kindle (or whatever method you read) but simply that people are venting their rage on authors whose contracts for distribution were organised a long time ago - possibly over a year. In the meantime, and really only in the last twelve months, and really, only for a small percent of the population, albeit a rapidly growing one, the world of ebooks exploded, but existing contracts (and that always includes distribution rights) remain VALID! So giving authors 1star ratings challenges them, not the publishers!

Now, I agree that every author most likely wants as much exposure as possible. In the current day, most authors WILL negotiate to have erights in their contract. But that is simply not relevant for books PUBLISHED now - they were signed off on a long long time ago, and really, in a different publishing world than what we have today.

It is the manner of this protest I am challenging. BUT, having said that - maybe I am older than all of you lot, but if I really want something, I am prepared to wait - a month - 6 months - to read it. I waited for 18 months (being in Australia) once I had seen a kindle, to be able to get my hands on one! I didnt moan and complain and put rotten reviews on Amazon about the kindle, I simply WAITED.

Whether or not to put any book on Kindle? Well, I guess that is another issue for another day.

[ficbot]

But Pushka, this is exactly the point---if publishing as a business is really set up in such a way that it *can't* respond to changing trends in a timely manner---as cost both to itself and the authors it represents---that is a problem and needs to be addressed. If Amazon reviews are the only thing that gets their attention, so be it. The resulting change will be good for everybody, and any smart author who actually *reads* the reviews will know this is not a personal response to them (and can in fact gain brownie points in such a situation by posting an appropriate response---look at the mileage Doctorow has gotten over the Audible drm issue! Major press has reported on it).

My dad, who is in The Industry, has often chuckled and told me that publishing is the only modern business he can think of that is still being run on the finest business practices that the 17th century has to offer. Things need to change---for everyone's benefit.

[DawnFalcon]

ficbot - I'd suggest he look at the games industry. How many other IP industries are still largely dependent on, of all things, crunch and burning out workers in five years?

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

ficbot - I'd suggest he look at the games industry. How many other IP industries are still largely dependent on, of all things, crunch and burning out workers in five years?

Have you read the stuff on Rockstar SanDiego and the crunch and burn over there? It's sickening. They need a union with some stones to do something about all that.