Litrachur, The Kindle, And Quality Control
Tuesday linkage ahoy!
* Here’s an oldie but goodie: Richard Curtis on genre writers. I agree with very much most of what he says, barring a few things that haven’t been my experience. But then, I’ve never tried to write litrachur. I’m content with writing what I think is “ZOMG cooooool and then guess what happened? THIS!” and it just happens to fall into genre. “Literary” fiction seems far too diffuse to me most of the time.
* In that same vein, (kind of) Hal Duncan’s “What Is Literary Fiction?” Food for thought all OVER that post.
* Sherman Alexie clarifying why he dislikes the idea of the Kindle, from the technology gap to subrights to the social impact of Amazon’s attempt to “change the way we read.”
I am in control of my audio books. And, as you will notice, I have only done three audio books, and have not been happy with that process, either, for various reasons. But when it comes to subrights, it seems that the farther one gets from the original writer and publisher, the more likely it is that the subrights licenser thinks of the books as product and not as art. The author of the original work becomes less and less important. And at every step off the way, the original artist makes far less money and has far less power than any of the companies profiting from the work. (Sherman Alexie)
Yes. Yes. YES. Oh, I’m sorry, was I shouting in agreement? Sorry about that.
Of course on a certain level the books ARE product, but they are product that deserves to be handled thoughtfully. It is natural for authors to want them to be handled more thoughtfully.
* Something unrelated that irritates me quite a bit. I was thinking about it on the treadmill this morning: the assumption that ebooks are “overpriced.” There’s overhead and quality control involved in an ebook just the same as a paper book. That overhead and QC drive up the price, but also assure that you’re getting a product that the publisher believed in enough to invest some money in, which is light-years away from an unedited manuscript. I’m not saying that self-publishing is bad, don’t drag out that red herring. I’m saying that part of what you pay for in a book is quality control and overhead, and that QC ups the chance that you’ll get more of what you want for your money. The costs of ebook production include marketing, overhead, editorial staff, proofreading–all these things that take time and investment.
It’s normal of people to want things for free, when of course they wouldn’t work for free themselves. This is a facet of human nature that companies have alternately deplored and taken advantage of (buy one get one free!) Add a layer of our social prohibition against artists making a living wage (you should SUFFER for your ARTE and be UNCONCERNED with PAYMENT, or you’re a HACK!!!!) and you have a recipe for aggravation.
I have some other stuff to talk about, but I suspect today isn’t the day for it. I’m cranky and grateful the heat’s broken a little. All that sunshine is a little weird when one lives in the great soggy PNW. Plus, sitting outside on the patio means mosquito bites, since the little buggers love me. I even have a mosquito bite on my instep. I mean, WTF, mosquito girl? What did you think you were going to get through the skin on my FEET? You didn’t get anything, I refuse to believe a bug proboscis can get through my calluses.
And so off I go to get some wordcount in on the third Dru book. Good luck to all, and to all a good afternoon.
Related posts:
- From Hopeful Kindle-Killer to I Game To Not Think
- Good News And Fantastic News
- It’s Been A Good Ride So Far
Tags: linkspam!, questions from the edge
June 2nd, 2009 at 12:23 pm
>>>Add a layer of our social prohibition against artists making a living wage<<<
I’ll never forget the time that I worked for weeks in order to produce handmade earrings for a craft show and when the show finally happened, nobody was buying. Complimenting, but not buying, until I slashed prices to just enough to recoup my materials costs. (I at least got that back so yay me.) When I later told a colleague at work about my experience, she said, “When you do art you’re supposed to do it for the love. You can’t expect to make money.” You know, if people don’t buy my work because it’s crap, that’s one thing, but this whole concept of giving it away “for the love”? Chaps my hide.
June 2nd, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Never underestimate mosquitoes: a tiger mosquito once got me through my jeans. THROUGH MY JEANS!!! o_O There aren’t many kinds of fabric tougher than that…
June 2nd, 2009 at 12:30 pm
And about that “for the love” thing, it doesn’t happen only to artists. Not too often, but not too rarely either, when I’m working at my vets’s clinic, some clients ask “Do I owe you anything?”.
“No sir, I do it for the glory, don’t worry about that, air is more than enough for my sustenance.” >:(
Because, obviously, they’re doing us a favor: since we’re vets, we strive to help animals and should be grateful they’re giving us the opportunity to cure their dog/cat, so how can we ask for money after that? *headdesk*
*rant mode off*
Sorry about the rant…
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:32 pm
I love books, if when I am 90 there are only electronic books, so be it. Right now there are books, tree killing books, yeah!
Just bought Strange Angels yesterday, took longer to get it in Canada, saving it for the weekend. Did I say – I love books.
June 2nd, 2009 at 11:24 pm
What water sources are nearby that you have mosquitoes visiting you? We have a small pond but the fish would any eggs that might attempt to grow.
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Jeeze, I love books (and thus writers) and agree with gaylin on the future of books. I actually don’t understand this stance that ebook prices are too high. I mean aren’t they cheaper than regular price? I’ve yet to understand why people complain about getting books for cheaper. What kind of person whines that a book (that has already been price-slashed) isn’t cheap enough. I mean HELLO! shouldn’t you be grateful that its already been reduced? It truly confuses me.
June 4th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
I love Reading! I love reading on my eBook reader most of all. I can have as many books as I want or as few as I want and switch from book to book as my mood changes without carrying 5 books at a time in my bag.
That said, I totally believe in paying a fair price for the eBooks I purchase. I know that the editing done for the paper version may not have been saved in a format usable for the e-version and thus needs to be done again. I know that the author needs to be paid. I *WANT* the author to be paid, how else would they be able to invest the time needed to write more wonderful stories for me to enjoy???
I don’t understand the mentality that eBooks should be free or only a few dollars. This isn’t enough to cover costs let alone pay the author. The only thing I wish would change is the habit of some publishing companies to leave the eBook price at Hard Cover level after the MMP has been released. But that is another post on another blog.
Love your work Lilith, I have some of your books in both eBook and Paper Book format, so you gotta know I value your words.
June 5th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Let me ask a stupid question….do you get an equal amount of money for the ebook and the “real” book? , I have never minded paying for an ebook…I’m buying the story, not the paper. I’d like to think that it’s the same for you financially.
But if I’m screwing an author out of royalties, well….I’ll just have to start sending you a dollar or something whenever I shop Fictionwise.
June 5th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
That’s not a stupid question–and you don’t have to worry. The publishers wouldn’t agree to pricing that didn’t cover their costs; plus, writers usually get a bigger percentage of ebook revenue than paper revenue. I’ve just seen a lot of vitriol directed at ebook prices lately without a lot of people realizing about quality control and overhead costs.
June 10th, 2009 at 10:08 am
While it’s very true there are QC costs and other overhead involved in ebooks it’s also true that publishers for the most part aren’t doing a good job on the QC front. Many of them are just doing a quick scan and OCR of a book and throwing it out there. Sometimes it seems they don’t even bother with a simple spell check, let alone actually proofreading the darn things.
Many ebooks are priced just fine. What gets most folks complaining is when the list price for a new book that comes out in hard cover, say $28, has the same list price as an ebook. Surely the list price for that ebook could be somewhat lower ($15?, $20?). While there are overhead costs to ebooks they are lower than with paper books. No warehousing, no returns, no remaindering of hard cover and trade editions, no printing costs (which are lower than some seem to think).