AG & e-books

Really? Why would you say that?
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It finally happened. My conscience stopped working. I've never felt so free.

Because I think it's true.

I agree. The internet has already ruined music. And not just the music business. Music itself has suffered dramatically from the "sharing". I see no reason why it won't destroy fiction writing, too.
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"We went together like Kennedys and head wounds."--Lenny Kapowski

That may be true as far as AuthorGuys/Gals being able to reach a house and get published, the vast amout of writing available on the net is just that vast.

Anthology magazines and books are closing up and withering, these used to be starting blocks for many good writers to get their feet into the pond and now without them and a readership that followed these venues getting out of the game good writing is getting missed.

Cover marketing is all the rage, who care about the content just jam as many of the popular genre books onto the shelves as possible.

ebook versions are available and that comes with the pirating side of the coin, and every computer out there can DL the various progs to read the words. The big Houses know this and the smaller Presses do too, So prices are up and printings are down, paperback may never see the light of print and that is a shame

I would love to read some of the works of a few folks here and that is because of word of mouth, mainly the mouthes here, if we didnt like and share some of the same thing we wouldnt be here. However I cant toss out 27.00 for each of the books I'd like to try from Amazon so I have to request them from my local library, but there too money is tight.

So readers suffer and good authors suffer, yes there is alot of stuff out there and its available for free, but there is alot of stuff out there and alot of it is worth what was paid for it. and the good readers and writers pay for it.
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Go home and perpetrate no weird shit until I am well drunk, and had several days to sleep it off.

Going random:

I tried the Kobo ereader and it really sucked. It couldn't keep up with me. Not to mention the feel. Books are better. Maybe the others are better. But even if they become vastly better, will they be a better format than a book? How many books do most people read, anyway? And how many do they need to carry around with them? A movie costs what, 12 bucks? And a paperback 10 to 20? Will the masses prefer to shell out for a reader and download? I wonder. EBooks are presently a niche market and will doubtless occupy a bigger niche, but mass market?

Music has definitely gone downhill and concert tickets have gone through the roof. Will eBooks be shared the same way as MP3s? Or will they get an encryption thing together. I remember when software was dead easy to pirate, but the security on expensive music software with dongles and what have has become bullet proof. Can the same thing be done eventually with eBooks and even music eventually?

Just wondering.
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There is nowhere I would be than right here, right now, doing exactly what I'm doing.

This has been bugging me, on and off, ever since my last post.

I think it might, ultimarely, hinge on encryption.

There are, if memory serves, encryption methods that are virtually or truly unbreakable, like 64 or 128 bit encryption. So bury the encryption key in on the ereader and encrypt IT so that the user can't mess with it.

Then the industry has to agree to a standard - they did it for MIDI. Something like this: ever ebook must be downloaded to that key and that key can be passed to another device but that makes the first device unusable until it gets the key back.

Then you couldn't make a zillion copies of each book and give them to friends and acquaintances or even sharing sites.

The tech will, if unchecked, screw it up for everyone, the way it has in music, but could the tech, if the publishers co-operate (definitely in their self-interest), could tech rescue it a little down the road.
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There is nowhere I would be than right here, right now, doing exactly what I'm doing.

Boota wrote:

I agree. The internet has already ruined music. And not just the music business. Music itself has suffered dramatically from the "sharing". I see no reason why it won't destroy fiction writing, too.

How has the internet ruined music? I'm buying more music than ever, simply because I am able to sample so much more and there's no way I'll ever break a CD, turn a cassette into spaghetti salad or scratch an LP ever again. A vast variety of the most diverse styles is available to me, limited only by my time to sample it all, and not to whatever the record store is willing to stock or order.
So many more artists now have the means to actually make themselves heard, not just the few that manage to sign up with a major label.
If anything is ruining music, it would be ClearChannel and the major labels, but they can't, because, hey, internet! Free publicity for everyone!

Incidentally, I would have never bought any of the AG's books if it wouldn't have been for e-books. Simply wasn't on my radar. I like funny shit with a little bit of a meaning to it every now and then, if it's not too fucking preachy. But how would that translate into anybody recommending new authors to me? Oh, I know! Yay, internet.
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It finally happened. My conscience stopped working. I've never felt so free.

Music these days fucking sucks. Finding anything new and good is near impossible. How the internet ruined it is by ruining the music business. People feel they have the right to steal music simply because they have the ability to do it. That has created a business where the only thing that gets a chance financially is the stuff that will make the most money. Lady Gaga and that crap is ALL that will get a chance because the risk is too great for anything else when the record companies investment will just be stolen. Good artists who deserve a shot will not get one because they can't guarantee sales of a million+ copies. Good artists don't get the development that they used to because it isn't affordable or worth the risk. It is a streamlined shit factory. There has always been bad music and undeserving artists, but not like it is now.

Everyone's argument is to make your money with live shows. That's great, for the top tier artists. For the rest of the touring artists, the ones everyone thinks are multi-millionaires, it is not feasible. Most of the money the artist makes is eaten up by the expense of touring. Most people would be very surprised by how little money some of their favorite artists actually make.

That relates directly to fiction writing and publishing. It's a devalued craft in the eyes of people who get it for free. Ebooks and MP3's are easy to steal. I had several thousand copies of my first book stolen electronically. And that's only the ones I know about. I sold exactly one eBook and started finding it on all sorts of file sharing sites. That's $2.50 out of MY pocket every single time that happens. Multiply that with every author a publisher throws financial support behind and see the writing on the wall. It will narrow the playing field like it has in music where only the Lady Gaga's of the literary world can survive.
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"We went together like Kennedys and head wounds."--Lenny Kapowski

They lack the intelligence and/or insight to see that when they rip off someone's work, they are hurting the artist, the industry and, ultimately, themselves.
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There is nowhere I would be than right here, right now, doing exactly what I'm doing.

Dissing Lady Gaga will earn you no points with me

She learned to play piano from the age of four, went on to write her first piano ballad at 13 and began performing at open mike nights by age 14.
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It finally happened. My conscience stopped working. I've never felt so free.

I wasn't trying to earn points. Lady Gaga, regardless of her musical background, makes fluff, flavorless music. And even if you like Lady Gaga, do you want everything to be Lady Gaga? Because that's where it's heading. In the world of publishing and recording the law will come down to :Be THIS or be gone."

Technology is not always progress.
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"We went together like Kennedys and head wounds."--Lenny Kapowski

Boota wrote:

I wasn't trying to earn points. Lady Gaga, regardless of her musical background, makes fluff, flavorless music. And even if you like Lady Gaga, do you want everything to be Lady Gaga? Because that's where it's heading. In the world of publishing and recording the law will come down to :Be THIS or be gone." Technology is not always progress.

Truth.

VHS was actually an inferior format to Beta, which TV stations continued to use. MP3 is inferior to CDs. But they both won out because an unsophisticated public went for them because they were more convenient even if they were lower quality.
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There is nowhere I would be than right here, right now, doing exactly what I'm doing.

Technology is ALWAYS progress:

Point: http://www.vuvuzela-time.co.uk/www.chrismoore.com/
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It finally happened. My conscience stopped working. I've never felt so free.

i could never afford to listen to the music i like before the internet, and if i was a musician, i would honestly want to get as much exposure as possible. i think that in the long run it might be good for the music industry for there to be less potential to become super rich and famous. then maybe people who love making music will be the ones who persevere. i still get giddy knowing that i can basically listen to any song i like on the free streaming sites.

also i think that the combination of cd's costing twice the price of cassettes when they came out combined with the unstable economy might have something to do the decreased revenue...
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clowns are people too...people who want to hurt you.

As I was setting up my new Barnes & Noble Nook this weekend and downloading a few books, including Practical Demonkeeping and Lust Lizard, I wondered how the authors (and everyone else who gets a slice of the pie) manage to make any money from e-books.
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Mark it 8, Dude.