So, if you go and look for a MacMillan book (or any of its imprints), say for example the brand new City of Dragons or the new paperback A Trace of Smoke, amazon.com says "we'll let you know when it's available." And if you put either of these on your gift list, go look. They're gone.
I've tested this myself right after midnight on January 31st.
Apparently MacMillan had the temerity to demand that Amazon.com only take 30% of the retail price, and wanted to determine the price that its products, including ebooks, would sell for.
Amazon.com, you are NOT entitled to just pull all the books a publisher has to offer (you can buy them still through independent resellers on amazon.com) because you...what? Want to control the price of the products you sell? Want to be able to dictate terms?
Well, I'm boycotting Amazon.com, because while you and I are entitled to health care, we are also entitled to a market place where the folks who have taken the financial risks (that's the author and the publisher) are entitled to input about how much their products sell for. And we're not falling for that "we're protecting the consumer" nonsense you are peddling.
Monopolies are never in the best interest of the consumer.
As someone who has worked in the software industry for nearly 20 years, I'm deeply ashamed of the behavior of the folks at Amazon.com. I will never spend a dime there again.
I also hope that the publishers wake up and smell the coffee, and charge a fair price for ebooks, or they'll suffer the same fate as record labels did last decade. It doesn't cost as much to produce an ebook, and people know that, and want to see a price that reflects it. But not a price nor terms dictated to it by Amazon.com.
More info here:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/amazon-pulls-macmillan-books-over-e-book-price-disagreement/
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Hey San Francisco? it's Me. STOP HISSING
Oh good lord.
Just stop with the hissing.
At Noir City last night, surrounded by baby chick noirinistas who *laugh* when a woman gets hit and HISS when a man says something mean about a cat.
Stop with the hissing. We know you're politically correct. You're at the Castro. So give it a fucking break so those of us old enough to understand the context within which Whitmore rousts the truck driver can stay in the movie and hear the dialog.
Clap, laugh, cry, shout, honest responses to a film should always be honored. But when you hiss you are no better than Joe Nutcase calling Obama a liar.
And it's horribly unattractive.
But you are entitled to health care.
Just stop with the hissing.
At Noir City last night, surrounded by baby chick noirinistas who *laugh* when a woman gets hit and HISS when a man says something mean about a cat.
Stop with the hissing. We know you're politically correct. You're at the Castro. So give it a fucking break so those of us old enough to understand the context within which Whitmore rousts the truck driver can stay in the movie and hear the dialog.
Clap, laugh, cry, shout, honest responses to a film should always be honored. But when you hiss you are no better than Joe Nutcase calling Obama a liar.
And it's horribly unattractive.
But you are entitled to health care.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
You are not entitle to project your insecurities onto others
Okay, it's human nature, we all do it now and then.
BUT, really, if you are, say, feeling insecure because you chose to write in a genre where it might be easier to get published and you might make a decent living, not because you loved it from the bottom of your toes since you were eight, don't turn around and then trash people writing in genres that you once aspired to. Sure, bust them when they are snooty, they need it! But don't trash the genre!!!!
Or maybe you are film director of the biggest box office movie in history. Don't turn around and trash Little Miss Sunshine just because it's got more heart per budget dollar than anything you produce ever will....(bitter much? not me!)....
You are not entitled to project your own insecurities on other people or institutions, just because you are feeling insecure. Whether you are an auto-worker looking at another 18 months of unemployment or an English professor at an Ivy League school.
Hmph.
BUT, really, if you are, say, feeling insecure because you chose to write in a genre where it might be easier to get published and you might make a decent living, not because you loved it from the bottom of your toes since you were eight, don't turn around and then trash people writing in genres that you once aspired to. Sure, bust them when they are snooty, they need it! But don't trash the genre!!!!
Or maybe you are film director of the biggest box office movie in history. Don't turn around and trash Little Miss Sunshine just because it's got more heart per budget dollar than anything you produce ever will....(bitter much? not me!)....
You are not entitled to project your own insecurities on other people or institutions, just because you are feeling insecure. Whether you are an auto-worker looking at another 18 months of unemployment or an English professor at an Ivy League school.
Hmph.
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