Kelly Meding’s book covers are too damn dark. I’m just sayin’.

I trekked out to the UW Bookstore so I could see their Espresso Book Machine in action. Pictures and video later, if I’m smart enough to put it together.

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

Microsoft Word’s annoying “comment” feature gave me a weird idea–which maybe you’ve already heard about from other people, but I’ll post it here in case it’s the newest thing in newville.

Background: for many years, local Seattle writer David Schmader gave live performances in which he played the schlocktastic movie SHOWGIRLS and delivered a running commentary for a live audience. I never went to one of his performances because a) it would involve going outside and b) it’s SHOWGIRLS, but the shows were so popular that the studio offered to let him do the show as a commentary track on the DVD.

That’s almost tempting.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about ebooks and people’s desire to resell them used. I’m not too keen on that idea, for reasons that I don’t necessarily want to go into, but it occurred to me that there are a lot of books that could stand to have a commentary track.

Would you be interested in an ebook of Lord of the Rings with interspersed comments by Tom Shippey? Would you want to read David Hines’s comments on John Ringo’s Paladin of Shadows books? Jo Walton’s take on… whatever?

The novels could be sold as an annotated edition–slightly more expensive than the original ebook, with payment going to the original publisher (and author) and a small fee going to the annotater. It wouldn’t be a “used” book the way paper books are sold, but it would be a value-added way for ebook readers to resell their content–and readers who were especially insightful (or, to be honest, snarky) could start a nice little side business.

Just an idea.

Edited to add: Actually, I’m not done writing about this. More in a bit.

Edited to add, redux: I meant to talk about this 70-minute slam review of The Phantom Menace, which everyone has been linking to lately. I’d planned to link to it, too, right up to the point that I watched it.

To explain: it’s seventy minutes of breaking down the many ways in which the film failed, and how George Lucas became too big to be “edited,” and how to establish audience sympathy, set up a protagonist, dramatize a dilemma central to the plot, etc. Interesting stuff, and it’s very professionally done.

The downside is that the reviewer decided to do the job in character. The conceit of the critique is that this is a film made by a brain-damaged serial killer–a guy so totally screwed up he’s one step away from a monster, and yet even he understands how badly Lucas blew it. So, between the comments about Qui Gon’s character and the utter muddle of the film’s plot, we get a bunch of goofy comments about women chained in the basement, f-bombs, disembodied voices, and general misogyny. Thanks for making sure I can’t watch this with my kid, filmmaker. So, a lot of useful insight and a lot of distasteful humor.

But this is something I’d expect to see on the annotation market, as I’m going to call it now. Readers as characters–Joe Bob Briggs or Red Mike, dialogs between the reader (as straightman) and an evil alter-ego).

Which would be kinds cool.

I’d envision the market working like this: A year for the book to be on sale. After that time, annotated versions could be sold alongside the un-annotated versions through the same online sellers. Publishers and authors would be able to have annotated versions that were not actual commentary pulled (for instance, a reader who posts their own fiction/fanfiction as annotations to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows would not be legit) but would be able to pull annotations because they were excessively critical.

I guess it would never happen in real life, but I like to think about it.

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

1) Anthony Bourdain schooled by 10-year-old.

2) MANBABIES!! I had nightmares because of that site, so you should, too.

3) Available at Booksellers Everywhere Except Amazon. Macmillan takes out a full page ad in the NY Times.

4) A defense of Elizabeth Gilbert. I loved reading this. I’m not someone looking to read Gilbert’s books, but I’m also not all that keen to hear her being held to a different standard than male authors, or to be cut down because she decided she was going to live a different sort of life.

5) The differences between indie authors and indie musicians. Related: The difference between the music industry and trade publishing.

6) Stop motion with shadow art. I’m torn between my admiration for the artistry and the cheesy anime subject matter. Also, did they have to countdown the filenames?

7) Jerry Pournelle remembers those who lost their lives in the Challenger disaster. I almost wish I read his books, so I could swear never again. Almost.

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

Do wet clothes "leach" heat or do they "leech" heat?

The various definitions I've found could support either word.

Update: "Leach" it is! Thank you. That's how I had it originally, but I had a bout of galley panic.

The Valentines contest winner has been chosen. Macmillan books are back on Amazon.com’s shelves (I can’t figure out whether the two companies reached a deal or Hatchet’s announcement that they were going to an agency model took the wind out of their sails).

And tomorrow, February 6th, is going to be the two year anniversary of the day my agent and I accepted Del Rey’s offer for Child of Fire. I’ll be celebrating a couple of different ways. For instance, I won’t be bringing my lap top to the coffee shop in the morning, just my galleys. I don’t know what I’ll do later, maybe (gasp!) watch a movie! Shocking, I know.

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

It appears that Amazon.com has been reinstating Macmillan books on their site. I guess that means I can reenable the links on my side bar.

Which I’ll do. Eventually.

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

Things have been mighty busy this week. I’m way behind on my blog reading, and we all know how important it is for a writer past his deadline to read blogs, yes?

I’m making good progress on my latest revision to Man Bites World, though. Of course it’s taking me longer than I would like, but it’s also more straightforward that I’d originally thought. It’s amazing how different things look when you think them out, yeah?

Which means, naturally, that my galleys for Game of Cages arrived yesterday. Tomorrow will be galley day. Fun!

Also, (to expand on a comment I wrote yesterday) I’ve been seeing a lot of people treating the Macmillan/Amazon.com conflict as the first step in the collapse of “Big Publishers.” I’ve also seen a number of people say that writers will soon be able to break away from their publishers and Do It All For Themselves! Hire an editor, pay for cover art, pay for a copy edit, buy a program that lets people design their own books.

Interestingly, there are very very few established writers who are eager for this to happen. A couple, but very few. Most established, professional writers don’t want any part of this business model.

Take me, for example. Do you think I could do this kind of revision to commissioned cover art?. Hell, no. I don’t have the skills or the talent. I’d have to hire an expert, which I can’t afford.

Consider also: After my agent (a former editor at Penguin) gives me notes, I send my book to Betsy Mitchell, editor-in-chief at Del Rey. I get two rounds of fantastic notes before the copy chief and copy editor even gets near it.

If Betsy were freelance, do you think I could afford to hire her? Do you think she’d have a window in her schedule for me, Newbie McFace-PunchingBook? Hell no. She’d charge a fortune for her services, and the people who could afford to work with her would be the doctors, lawyers and stock brokers of the world–people with high-paying day jobs who could afford to shell out the bucks for their hobby.

Besides it seems to me that ebooks are not the poison pill that will kill Big Publishing. Not when BP does so much that “indie” authors–even indie authors with a pro track record–would never be able duplicate all the things a big-time publisher does.

Doesn’t anyone remember when POD publishing was going to be the death of traditional publishers? Did Stephen King jump ship and start his own press, with editors and publicity staff he paid out of his own pocket (to keep the profits for himself!). He could certainly afford it. James Patterson has three people at his publisher who work exclusively on him and his books–has he hired them away to Patterson Publishing to run his own shop? Has J.K. Rowling, who could afford to pay her staff in six figures, including the receptionist?

No, they haven’t. NY Publishers add value. Maybe people want books to be cheaper, and maybe they hate rejection letters, but that doesn’t mean the companies themselves are going to fail.

Back to work.

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

But first, the galleys for Game of Cages arrived today. Woo-hoo! Due on March 10th, so I'm getting out the colored pencils!

Now, the Valentine's Day contest. To recap: I asked folks to share a story of dating hell, and I'd pick three for folks to vote on. Here are the tales of woe:

Entry one: A blind date, practice relationship, accidental kiss, and Mel Gibson.

Entry two: A boyfriend with a wandering eye, a dinner date with eight of his closest friends--his treat, and much patting of empty pockets.

Entry three: A beautiful woman, an ugly man, the creepy doctor trying to couple them up, and an ugly man's hurt feelings exploding in workplace violence.

Entry four: Weeks of pressure at the office to go on a blind date, a guy who doesn't want to be there either, small talk about divorces and custody battles, and hopefully a punch in the face the next day at work.

However! Entry three clearly violates the rules, since it contains one murder and arguably more, so the three finalists are one, two and four.

Give the entries a quick read and vote for your favorite! I'll pick the winner Friday night.

We have a clear winner!

Poll #1521527 Who will it be?
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10

Choose the lowest circle of dating hell! Is it:

Jeff Vandermeer posted about the sense of entitlement many ebook readers show in the comment sections of the Macmillan/Amazon.com threads that have popped up since last week. Take a look; it’s an interesting piece.

One thing I think he’s missing is the anger and resentment of self-proclaimed indie authors, who seize on any opportunity to lambaste large NY publishers and their many, many rejection letters. The common indie author shouts of “Last century’s business model!” and “Useless middlemen!” and “Getting between authors and readers!” have been rhetorical weapons the 9.99 Boycotters have snatched up and brandished with gusto.

In the meantime, I’ve disabled the Amazon.com links in the sidebar of my blog. I’ll reinstate them when Boneshaker (and other Tor titles) are restored. It won’t mean much to the Big River Flowing Through All Those Tubes, but it’s what I can do at the moment.

Last, there are four entries in the Valentine’s contest (although not all of them are on the correct post). I’ll be listing my top three tonight sometime after dinner. Last chance to enter!

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

The contest for winning a copy of Child of Fire has ten comments on it but only one actual entry. Enter before tomorrow (Thurs) evening if you want a free book.

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

Poll #1520840 You have 18 minutes to answer
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4

How should I spend my lunch break?

Thank you, everyone! Reading it is!

One of the things Macmillan could do to ease customers’ fears about dynamic prices (or the lack thereof) is to actually go through their back catalog and drop the prices of ebooks that are several years old. For instance, here’s a Steven Brust novel with an ebook that costs almost twice as much as the mmpb. Or this Vinge novel.

If they want readers to believe them when they say they’ll reduce prices over time, they should already be doing it.

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

… today was a very productive day. I didn’t have very much internet time, but I guess that’s why it was productive.

I did end up consigning one character to the lonely limbo of my memory when I cut her completely from the book. Too bad. I liked her very much.

I also ended up with a net loss in words, despite adding a couple short scenes. Revising the sequence without the character sped things along quite a bit, although I personally still feel her loss.

The book will be better for it–simpler and more unified.

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

1) Darth Vader – James Earl Jones = David Prowse in a plastic mask reading Vader’s lines on set. I can’t help but laugh when I hear him say “I want those plans!” via Keith Calder

2) An officer shoots and kills a criminal, in the officer’s own words.

3) Every news report must be structured like this. via madrobins

4) Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist posts a promotional excerpt of a new GRRM story in an upcoming anthology, and the comments explode with butt-hurt Song of Ice and Fire fans complaining about the delay in the latest book. Normally I suggest skipping comments, but here the comments are delicious. I’m sure someone out there has already made a ASOIAF/DOWNFALL spoof, yeah?

5) The Scale of the Universe. It’s beautiful. It’s like church for atheists.

6) “Will they follow in the lusty steps of their forebears, the Golden Girls?” The nuttiest conservative Christian rant on gays I’ve seen in a while. The author, who apparently has a slight problem with gays who won’t read the articles he emails to them, thinks The Golden Girls sitcom turned a generation of young men into homosexuals, and it’s so wacky (and quotable! “Personally, I do not look forward to the day when we’re having moral debates about robot sex, gay jetpacks or houseplant marriage”) that there were points where I was sure it was satire. Or irrational hate. Or maybe satire again. No, that’s just more hate. Then I saw the link at the bottom to The Dark Underside of America’s Obsession with Cat Ownership and I swear I have no idea what to think (except: “Gay jetpacks?? I’ll take two!”) via Jay Lake.

7) More Macmillan vs. Amazon.com, discussed on Absolute Write. It’s an 8-page thread as of the time of this posting, but very informative. It’s also pretty easy to tell who are the knowledgeable voices and who aren’t. You even get to see an example of mansplaining with the wild (which is so incredibly rare, I know).

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

Now that the Macmillan/Amazon.com fight is over (supposedly, since none of the Tor novels I look at on their site are available) we can focus on the greatest, most hated holiday of all.

Valentine’s Day.

It’s only two weeks away, and it’s justifiably hated by single people. People in love can spend a couple of bucks (or even better, some time and thought) to come up with something nice for their loved ones–which they ought to be doing year round anyway, but never mind. For people who are single but don’t want to be, it can be the loneliest day of the year. Believe me. I remember.

For you singletons, happy or un-, I have a gift. Actually, I have a contest! Here’s how it will work: Post a story, either in the main blog or on LiveJournal (sorry, Facebook people, but you have to go to the blog to enter), of the worst, most pathetic true tale of dating hell you can come up with. Rape, murder and pedophilia are off limits–those stories are hard for me to bear. Everything else will be fair game. You an enter as many times as you like.

On, let’s say, Thursday, I’ll link to all the stories and choose my favorite three (assuming I get that many) and let you readers choose the winner.

The prize will be a copy of Child of Fire, of course. Single folks will be able to shut out the tawdry pink hearts and chocolates with the nasty cherries inside and read a romance-free book about shadowy killers, a disintegrating community, and cleansing rage. Yeah, you heard right. Cleansing, cleansing rage.

Of course, you don’t have to be single or lonely to enter. Everyone is welcome, although if you win the book and you already have someone in your life who will be treating you special on that day, maybe you can give it to someone else who might enjoy it (and I’ll leave it up to your judgement whether you tell them why or not.

Let the stories begin!

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

Andrew Wheeler on what it means.

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

This isn’t a randomness post because it’s mostly about me.

First: This is an interview with me over at Sci-Fi Bookshelf, a new book review site. Check it out.

Second: You know that trick where people add absurd sub-titles to the scene of Hitler having a tantrum in DOWNFALL? The first person who did it had a brilliant idea. Subsequent versions were mildly funny and a good way to mock other people’s sense of entitlement. Now, though, it’s played out. Let’s stop, okay?

Third: Amazon.com is pulling some major bullshit once again, this time in their dispute with Macmillan over ebook prices.. No, I don’t want to have a discussion about what price points are “fair” for ebooks. I’m not even all that interested in hearing what you’d be willing to pay. However, Amazon.com is using the 9.99 price to push their $400 Kindles, and if they achieve the market dominance they are aiming for in the ereader device market, they will be able to set the price as high as they like, and dictate revenue splits to the publishers. This isn’t about holding down costs for readers; it’s about being the one who sets the price.

Amazon.com is looking at long-term benefits, which is why I’m looking more and more at Indiebound.org. You order the book and have it shipped to you at home–or if you want to avoid shipping costs, you can pick the book up at your local independent bookstore.

Fourth, via Laura Ann Gilman: Google founders plan a stock sale that will surrender their controlling interest in the company. Whether they have lived up their company motto of “Don’t be evil” or not (and with the Author’s Guild book settlement, I say most emphatically not), they’ll have to change the motto to “The shareholders have certain expectations of short-term profitability.” Even if you think Google can be trusted with the IP they’re confiscating now, can you trust the shareholder-led company they’ll shortly become?

Fifth: After three days of waking early (and starting my writing early) due to morning nightmares, I was finally tired enough today to fall back to sleep after a bad dream at 4:30. Damn. And I’d been so productive, too.

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

There’s a certain movie that I think is Awesome Concentrate but that a certain co-worker claims is a piece of crap. I make no claims that it’s Oscar-worthy–it’s essentially a low-budget B-movie and the first ten minutes are excruciatingly awful–but it’s exactly the sort of thing I love.

For those among you who recognize the quote: “Don’t worry Dave, all we want to do is kill you,” [1] am I right, or am I right?

[1] No Googling! I’ll know.

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

Sometime back, I condemned ACORN in my blog because of what the sting operation had revealed about it. It seemed outrageous–almost unbelievable that ACORN volunteers would tell a (supposed) pimp and prostitute how they could hide 13-year-old Salvadoran girls from the authorities when they brought them to be prostituted in the U.S. Frankly, the internet has made me a little cynical (just today I saw a defense of fictionalized pedophilia) and that cynicism made me easy to fool.

Anyway, the tapes were all over the media, showing James O’Keefe strutting down the street in a pimp costume with his partner beside him, and video of ACORN volunteers suggesting the pimp and prostitute hide money from the IRS by burying it in a coffee can in the back yard. Not to mention the stuff about the Salvadoran girls. It was incendiary stuff, God knows, and both parties in Congress lambasted ACORN.

So ACORN hired an investigator to find out what happened in all the cities O’Keefe visited. Their report stated that the videos were very heavily edited, and several of O’Keefe and his partner’s comments were overdubbed, making in unclear what the volunteers were actually responding to. Editing a message to change a question after the other party has posted their answer? A pretty common type of shitty behavior. You can read a bit about the report for yourself.

But while that was interesting, it wasn’t convincing to me. ACORN hired the investigator; the investigator found no illegal activity. Big surprise.

But here’s the funny thing: While O’Keefe and his employers have never released an unedited version of the video tapes, they did post full transcripts on their site, and the transcripts don’t match the claims they made about ACORN’s actions.

For instance, O’Keefe never wore his pimp costume into the ACORN offices–he went in a suit and tie. He didn’t tell them he was a pimp. He told them the prostitute was his girlfriend and he wanted to protect her from her abusive pimp. Of course that was carefully edited out of the tape. Once he said he worked at a bank. Once he said he was in law school.

He also told the volunteers that her pimp was the one bringing in the Salvadoran girls and asked for their help hiding the girls from him. They never asked for the best way to house their underage prostitutes. The coffee can full of money was supposed to hide the money from the pimp, not the government. In fact, the ACORN volunteers consistently told the pair that they would need to pay their taxes.

In short, O’Keefe punked the media and the federal government with a heavily-edited video. And, because so many of us are ready to see inner city black people as lawless criminals, we went right along with it. That was my error, and my cynicism, which made me so easy to fool.

So the federal government has cut its funding (which once made up about 10% of ACORN’s funding) from an organization that helps poor people register to vote and find affordable housing, and why? Because O’Keefe’s conservative activist employer wanted to frame people he thought were already guilty. And it was so easy to just go along with it.

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

1) The changes my agent has asked me to do have turned out to be surprisingly simple. Not easy by any means, and certainly not quick, but not terribly complicated, either. What she’s asked me to pare away, unify and change are pretty self-contained as far as the overall plot goes. Except the ending. I’m still thinking about the change to the ending.

2) Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking was a revelation. Rupert Everett’s performance in the lead was startling and affecting. The murder plot–wealthy young girls kidnapped from their homes and strangled–wasn’t terrifically original, but the performances were wonderful.

3) Some weeks ago, I posted links on my main blog/website to let people pre-order Game of Cages if they wanted. I went to every site I’d listed for Child of Fire and dug up a link for all of them… except for Barnes & Noble, because the book wasn’t listed yet. It’s still not listed.

Sure, the publication date is seven months away, but it ought to be listed by now, yeah? If, that is, B&N plans to stock the book at all.

4) I really do not need to be distracted by the idea that B&N might not be carrying my book, along with everything that implies. Not when I have a novel to finish.

5) Isn’t “pre-order” kind of a ridiculous term? Some friends pointed this out to me a while ago, but the “pre-order” happens when I’m planning a purchase. Even if the product isn’t available yet, I’m still ordering it, right?

I think I’m going to spend my time thinking about #5 and #1 instead of #4

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.