Dumbest people alive, or irredeemably crazy?
anonymous
February 3 2010, 05:45:06 UTC
OK, I admit it, I have no idea what you're talking about. I haven't been reading diatribes by people who aren't authors about this.
I do, however, read most of the things I read, these days, on a Kindle.
It's terribly convenient, light weight, etc.
I don't care about price - I like the convenience. I like being able to take 100 books with me on vacation. I like to be able to read a book on the bus, while standing and holding on to the bar.
I think people like you may be in danger of over-reacting, and assuming that people like me are spawn of the devil, horrible putrid nasty evil folks, who hate authors and want to eat their souls.
Actually, I love authors, and I love books, and I really don't care about paper and bindings and such.
Or price.
But if you keep up hating me for a while, I'm sure I'll start worrying about things that I don't now.
Maybe you (and the weird people who are setting you off) should just chill?
Re: Dumbest people alive, or irredeemably crazy?barbarienneFebruary 3 2010, 06:17:59 UTC
I'm not hating Kindle owners, or ebook owners in general, as a class. Rock on, you pioneers of a new technology that I may not personally prefer for my novel-reading enjoyment, but whose benefits are bloody obvious.
I fully expect to purchase a later generation of iPad or similar device in about three years, and I anticipate I will buy some ebooks to read on it.
But in amongst the bitching and moaning about the price of ebooks--which is driven by selfishness and ignorance, two motivations I can at least comprehend, having been motivated by them myself at times--there is this strange undercurrent of persecution complex. There are people who state, clearly and in plain English, that they believe Macmillan was motivated by a desire to prevent ebooks from becoming a dominant paradigm in the industry.
And that...that's just insane. It requires a level of self-centeredness that leaps the normal standard of egotism and moves right into the pathological level of thinking the entire world revolves around them.
Re: Dumbest people alive, or irredeemably crazy?rugorFebruary 3 2010, 11:08:14 UTC
I think part of it is because some think this will usher in a golden age of all books being either free or $0.99 (because printing makes up almost all the costs of a book and only the price of paper editions need be used to recoup the publisher's up front costs). Most have bought into the meme that "ebooks cost nothing to produce and so should never cost more than $10."
I've been taking part in the discussion on the Mobileread forums and it's been very very hard. Almost everyone there seems to think Macmillan is evil and Amazon is the good guy in this dispute purely because of the hardcover equivalent price point issue.
Re: Dumbest people alive, or irredeemably crazy?barbarienneFebruary 3 2010, 14:53:26 UTC
Maddening indeed! My reaction has been twofold. First, if they don't want to pay $14.99, then they don't have to! They can buy another book, or wait a year, or go to the library.
Second, they're just books. Now, as a fictioneer, it's hard to say those words, but the reality is, we're entertainment providers. Some of that entertainment may come with the bonus of expanding people's horizons, that may play out in a Butterfly Effect that leads to all kinds of great things.
But it's not as if we're hoarding the cure for cancer, AIDS, or Alzheimers. People with terrible diseases need their cure--it is literally life or death.
Books are wants, bought with disposable income. If you can't afford one, you buy a different one, or get the one you want by one of the myriad other means (patience, libraries, etc
( ... )
Re: Dumbest people alive, or irredeemably crazy?rugorFebruary 3 2010, 15:05:03 UTC
I agree.
I just responded to a post on MobileRead where someone said that ebooks should not share in editing and marketing costs because those were covered by the paper editions.
I wanted to know what made them so special.
This is really bringing out the worst in people: especially those who support Amazon.
Re: Dumbest people alive, or irredeemably crazy?barbarienneFebruary 3 2010, 16:04:32 UTC
I just responded to a post on MobileRead where someone said that ebooks should not share in editing and marketing costs because those were covered by the paper editions.
-->To those comments I always ask what they expect to happen when dead tree editions are obsolete and everyone only reads ebooks?
Re: Dumbest people alive, or irredeemably crazy?delkytlarFebruary 3 2010, 16:16:34 UTC
I started to post a reply about this ridiculous conception that "printing makes up almost all the costs of a book", but it would have overwhelmed this thread. I've posted these thoughts on my own LJ (http://delkytlar.livejournal.com/81497.html).
Barbarienne: you keep on clearing up these fuzzy-headed people. You're doing a fine job of it.
Re: Dumbest people alive, or irredeemably crazy?robotech_masterFebruary 4 2010, 17:27:25 UTC
I tend to be a bit more on Amazon's side not because I don't want to pay $5 extra for an e-book-I don't buy from Amazon anyway; I've got a big eReader and Fictionwise library already from the ten years I've been reading on eReader before the Kindle was a twinkle in Bezos's eye-but because I feel it's bad for the consumer in general for the wholesaler to have the ability to fix retail prices. Once they fix the prices everywhere, there's no more competition and the wholesalers can set whatever retail price they like.
In the past, this was held to be a violation of anti-trust laws, but apparently due to a recent Supreme Court decision it's become a lot harder to apply that standard.
Re: Dumbest people alive, or irredeemably crazy?angharaFebruary 3 2010, 18:54:10 UTC
Hey, Anonymous - writers write books for them to be read. I for one would be overjoyed if you stuck one of mine on your Kindle as part of your 100-for-the-vacation package
( ... )
I do, however, read most of the things I read, these days, on a Kindle.
It's terribly convenient, light weight, etc.
I don't care about price - I like the convenience. I like being able to take 100 books with me on vacation. I like to be able to read a book on the bus, while standing and holding on to the bar.
I think people like you may be in danger of over-reacting, and assuming that people like me are spawn of the devil, horrible putrid nasty evil folks, who hate authors and want to eat their souls.
Actually, I love authors, and I love books, and I really don't care about paper and bindings and such.
Or price.
But if you keep up hating me for a while, I'm sure I'll start worrying about things that I don't now.
Maybe you (and the weird people who are setting you off) should just chill?
Reply
I fully expect to purchase a later generation of iPad or similar device in about three years, and I anticipate I will buy some ebooks to read on it.
But in amongst the bitching and moaning about the price of ebooks--which is driven by selfishness and ignorance, two motivations I can at least comprehend, having been motivated by them myself at times--there is this strange undercurrent of persecution complex. There are people who state, clearly and in plain English, that they believe Macmillan was motivated by a desire to prevent ebooks from becoming a dominant paradigm in the industry.
And that...that's just insane. It requires a level of self-centeredness that leaps the normal standard of egotism and moves right into the pathological level of thinking the entire world revolves around them.
Reply
I've been taking part in the discussion on the Mobileread forums and it's been very very hard. Almost everyone there seems to think Macmillan is evil and Amazon is the good guy in this dispute purely because of the hardcover equivalent price point issue.
It's maddening.
Reply
Second, they're just books. Now, as a fictioneer, it's hard to say those words, but the reality is, we're entertainment providers. Some of that entertainment may come with the bonus of expanding people's horizons, that may play out in a Butterfly Effect that leads to all kinds of great things.
But it's not as if we're hoarding the cure for cancer, AIDS, or Alzheimers. People with terrible diseases need their cure--it is literally life or death.
Books are wants, bought with disposable income. If you can't afford one, you buy a different one, or get the one you want by one of the myriad other means (patience, libraries, etc ( ... )
Reply
I just responded to a post on MobileRead where someone said that ebooks should not share in editing and marketing costs because those were covered by the paper editions.
I wanted to know what made them so special.
This is really bringing out the worst in people: especially those who support Amazon.
Reply
-->To those comments I always ask what they expect to happen when dead tree editions are obsolete and everyone only reads ebooks?
Reply
Barbarienne: you keep on clearing up these fuzzy-headed people. You're doing a fine job of it.
Reply
Reply
In the past, this was held to be a violation of anti-trust laws, but apparently due to a recent Supreme Court decision it's become a lot harder to apply that standard.
Reply
Reply
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