The crazy part is, I haven't! I've seen those kind of comments on Scalzi's blog, and yours, and a couple of other places, and they're not all from the same lone lunatic. There are clearly multiple people participating in what can only be defined as a group hallucination.
It would be delightfully trainwrecky if it weren't so pitiable. I don't like to be reminded of the frailty of the human psyche.
It's not all readers, either. Published writer Lynn Abbey talks about why she believes this and has chosen to opt out and create her own direct-to-public e-book store, along with Jane Fancher and C.J. Cherryh.
Those are excellent links, particularly the second one. I'm certainly going to be following this ongoing story. I stand by my prediction that publishers in general want to embrace ebooks (or maybe just their production managers want that), but certainly the future will be interesting.
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
( ... )
Comments 47
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It would be delightfully trainwrecky if it weren't so pitiable. I don't like to be reminded of the frailty of the human psyche.
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Whether it's true or not, the publishers sure are making it easy to build a case.
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As someone who comes from a family of teabaggers, PAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I heart you.
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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
Reply
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