Catching Up
Pages written since last post: 267
As you can see from the above statistic, that pesky little thing called writing a book has once again interfered with keeping this blog up-to-date. Here's what you missed:
1) Favorite book of 2009 (only two months late!): The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. This, friends and neighbors, is why there will always be paper books. This is a book you want to hold in your hands, savoring every word, touching the pages, marveling over the design. It's not only that the book within a book does, in fact, look as though it was painted on a cellar wall by a fugitive in Nazi Germany; it's not only the elegance of the story; it's not only the prose that makes you want to weep from the sheer beauty of it; it is all of those things that come together to make one perfect novel. This is why there will always be paper books.
Second Favorite Book :The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer. This book made reading fun again.
2)My take on the whole IPad/Amazon/Macmillan broohaha
Now I know that most of you who read this blog really don't know (or care) much about what's going on in the industry, and you are probably all the happier for it. Personally, I'm getting a little tired of it all too. But because everyone assures me that the world as we know it is at stake, and because I did spend a good bit of time before Christmas posting about e-readers, and-- most importantly-- because it actually makes for a semi-good story, here's my summation: (a caveat-- I very often get things wrong. For a much more coherent, and undoubtedly more accurate, depiction of the situation, go to this post by my favorite industry blogger, Nathan Bransford)
To support the launch of its seriously cool new Ipad mini-computer (some people have made the mistake of calling it an e-reader, but get real), Apple, sensing discontent in the publishing industry over Amazon.com's 9.99 pricing of e-books, went to the Big Six publishers and proposed a deal whereby e-books on the Ipad would be priced at 14.95, and publishers would receive 30% of retail (Amazon pays publishers 50% of retail; i.e. the hardcover price Even I can do the math on that). Macmillan seems to have been first to publicly snap up this gem of a deal, although I understand all six major publishers are either coming or have already come on board with it as well. All fine and good except Macmillan then went to Amazon.com and told them they would no longer be allowed to sell Macmillan e-books under any terms other than the ones Macmillan had agreed to with Apple (14.95). Amazon said Okay, fine-- and immediately deleted all the "buy" buttons for every Macmillan title they carried! Not just the e-books, but all the books.
Now here is what I found interesting. The vast majority of public opinion seems to be casting Macmillan as the victim in this gambit. Amazon is being accused of behaving childishly, of throwing a temper tantrum, of trying to control the marketplace, of bidding for a monopoly on e-books. No one seems to have much to say about who gathered the Big Six in an alliance against 9.99 pricing in the first place. And what about the Macmillan authors? They're the ones who lost sales over the course of a very, very long weekend while their publisher duked it out with the internet's biggest bookseller. But, again to my surprise, the Macmillan authors who have spoken out on this matter seem to be supporting their publisher. As I said at the beginning, I very often get things wrong. And sometimes I just don't get things at all.
The upshot is that Amazon.com admits that it will be forced to "capitulate at some point" to the demands of publishers on the 14.95 pricing (gee, do you think?). And I am downloading every 9.99 book I can while I can.
And, in case anyone is wondering: yes of course I want an Ipad! It has color!!
3)Enough about that; let's talk about ME. Those 267 pages cited above represent my first completed book of the year (the first half of which was written in the last two months of last year) which was e-mailed to my editor with 5 1/2 hours to spare before deadline. Yay, me. My goal this year is to complete two more books and at least two proposals (a proposal, for me, is 50-100 pages). My fantasy also includes 1)completing and self-publishing a book I started last year, just to see what all the fuss is about 2) writing a screen play (who says I don't know how??) 3) uploading at least ten of my out-of-print and reverted titles as e-books. The latter is not such a challenge if you have actual digital copies of your books, but in my case the titles are 20 years old, exist only as bound paperbacks, and have to be scanned into my computer... page, by page, by page. This is what I do for a living, folks. I am a writer.
4) What am I reading?
On my Kindle: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
In hardcover: An Irish Country Girl by Patrick Taylor
On my Ipod: Evidence by Jonathon Kellerman (hint: never download the unabridged version!)
On CD: 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to download more 9.99 e-books.
As you can see from the above statistic, that pesky little thing called writing a book has once again interfered with keeping this blog up-to-date. Here's what you missed:
1) Favorite book of 2009 (only two months late!): The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. This, friends and neighbors, is why there will always be paper books. This is a book you want to hold in your hands, savoring every word, touching the pages, marveling over the design. It's not only that the book within a book does, in fact, look as though it was painted on a cellar wall by a fugitive in Nazi Germany; it's not only the elegance of the story; it's not only the prose that makes you want to weep from the sheer beauty of it; it is all of those things that come together to make one perfect novel. This is why there will always be paper books.
Second Favorite Book :The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer. This book made reading fun again.
2)My take on the whole IPad/Amazon/Macmillan broohaha
Now I know that most of you who read this blog really don't know (or care) much about what's going on in the industry, and you are probably all the happier for it. Personally, I'm getting a little tired of it all too. But because everyone assures me that the world as we know it is at stake, and because I did spend a good bit of time before Christmas posting about e-readers, and-- most importantly-- because it actually makes for a semi-good story, here's my summation: (a caveat-- I very often get things wrong. For a much more coherent, and undoubtedly more accurate, depiction of the situation, go to this post by my favorite industry blogger, Nathan Bransford)
To support the launch of its seriously cool new Ipad mini-computer (some people have made the mistake of calling it an e-reader, but get real), Apple, sensing discontent in the publishing industry over Amazon.com's 9.99 pricing of e-books, went to the Big Six publishers and proposed a deal whereby e-books on the Ipad would be priced at 14.95, and publishers would receive 30% of retail (Amazon pays publishers 50% of retail; i.e. the hardcover price Even I can do the math on that). Macmillan seems to have been first to publicly snap up this gem of a deal, although I understand all six major publishers are either coming or have already come on board with it as well. All fine and good except Macmillan then went to Amazon.com and told them they would no longer be allowed to sell Macmillan e-books under any terms other than the ones Macmillan had agreed to with Apple (14.95). Amazon said Okay, fine-- and immediately deleted all the "buy" buttons for every Macmillan title they carried! Not just the e-books, but all the books.
Now here is what I found interesting. The vast majority of public opinion seems to be casting Macmillan as the victim in this gambit. Amazon is being accused of behaving childishly, of throwing a temper tantrum, of trying to control the marketplace, of bidding for a monopoly on e-books. No one seems to have much to say about who gathered the Big Six in an alliance against 9.99 pricing in the first place. And what about the Macmillan authors? They're the ones who lost sales over the course of a very, very long weekend while their publisher duked it out with the internet's biggest bookseller. But, again to my surprise, the Macmillan authors who have spoken out on this matter seem to be supporting their publisher. As I said at the beginning, I very often get things wrong. And sometimes I just don't get things at all.
The upshot is that Amazon.com admits that it will be forced to "capitulate at some point" to the demands of publishers on the 14.95 pricing (gee, do you think?). And I am downloading every 9.99 book I can while I can.
And, in case anyone is wondering: yes of course I want an Ipad! It has color!!
3)Enough about that; let's talk about ME. Those 267 pages cited above represent my first completed book of the year (the first half of which was written in the last two months of last year) which was e-mailed to my editor with 5 1/2 hours to spare before deadline. Yay, me. My goal this year is to complete two more books and at least two proposals (a proposal, for me, is 50-100 pages). My fantasy also includes 1)completing and self-publishing a book I started last year, just to see what all the fuss is about 2) writing a screen play (who says I don't know how??) 3) uploading at least ten of my out-of-print and reverted titles as e-books. The latter is not such a challenge if you have actual digital copies of your books, but in my case the titles are 20 years old, exist only as bound paperbacks, and have to be scanned into my computer... page, by page, by page. This is what I do for a living, folks. I am a writer.
4) What am I reading?
On my Kindle: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
In hardcover: An Irish Country Girl by Patrick Taylor
On my Ipod: Evidence by Jonathon Kellerman (hint: never download the unabridged version!)
On CD: 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to download more 9.99 e-books.
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