There Are Things I Want You to Tell Me…

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…but they don’t have anything directly to do with either Stieg Larsson or Eva Gabrielsson, per se.

Just as with earlier this week, we have an example of what I can only call “price gouging”. Here’s today’s example.

Please, can someone explain why this hardcover is discounted to less that EIGHTEEN dollars:

“There Are Things I Want You to Know About Stieg Larsson and Me”, by Eva Gabrielsson (hardcover)

“There Are Things I Want You to Know About Stieg Larsson and Me”, by Eva Gabrielsson (hardcover)

…yet the eBook below, while discounted by over a third, still costs nearly SEVENTEEN dollars:

“There Are Things I Want You to Know About Stieg Larsson and Me”, by Eva Gabrielsson (eBook)

“There Are Things I Want You to Know About Stieg Larsson and Me”, by Eva Gabrielsson (eBook)

…which is only 99¢ less than the discounted price of the Hardcover edition of the work in the listing above it?

Notice as well that the Recommended Retail Price for the electronic edition is identical to the RRP for the electronic edition.

Let me remind you once again, don’t blame the un-identified retailers, they’re working with the RRP set by the publishers, which in this case is Seven Stories Press, who seem to be bound and determined to ensure no eBook is ever purchased by any individual in the history of man, just as Corgi and Transworld were earlier this week.

Authors (even the dead ones): talk to the houses who publish your work and insist they no longer ignore the way their are slicing their own throats. Electronic bindings are not some sort of luxury, especially as one has already bought some fancy electronic goo-gaw to read the books on in the first place. They can make money through volume sold just as easily as if they locate the handful of people in the marketplace daft or rich enough to pay top dollar for the option of carrying less paper.

Someone Please Explain This to Me

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…preferably as though I was aged for the target market of the book.

I’ve said for some length of time that eBooks need to be approached as being a replacement (if they can be said to ‘replace’ anything) for Mass Market Paperback editions of titles. they fulfill the same approach as the Penguin or Pocket editions of any novel: get the words to the eye-bones of the readers as easily as possible. There’s no requirement for them to last forever, they’re not meant to be cherished, they aren’t supposed to survive thousands of readings un-molested. They’re meant to be read, possibly re-read, and that’s about it really.

So, based on that, eBooks are the same, except they’re able to withstand multiple readings. None the less, however, they present the words in the simplest and plainest format for the express purpose of getting words to the eye-bones of the readers.

Thus, can someone please explain why this MMP costs TWELVE dollars:

“I Shall Wear Midnight” (Discworld Novel 38), by Terry Pratchett {paperback}

“I Shall Wear Midnight” (Discworld Novel 38), by Terry Pratchett {paperback}

…yet the eBook below costs NINETEEN dollars:

“I Shall Wear Midnight” (Discworld Novel 38), by Terry Pratchett {electronic book}

“I Shall Wear Midnight” (Discworld Novel 38), by Terry Pratchett {electronic book}

…which is actually 50¢ more than the Hardcover edition of the work in the listing above it?

Don’t blame the un-identified retailers, they’re working with the Recommended Retail Price set by the publishers, which in this case is Transworld and Corgi, who seem to be bound and determined to ensure no eBook is ever purchased by any individual in the history of man.

Authors: talk to the houses who publish your work and insist they no longer ignore the way their are slicing their own throats. Electronic bindings are not some sort of luxury, especially as one has already bought some fancy electronic goo-gaw to read the books on in the first place. They can make money through volume sold just as easily as if they locate the handful of people in the marketplace daft or rich enough to pay top dollar for the option of carrying less paper.

‘Lorem Ipsum Dolor’ Just Got Yummier

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Who needs boring old ‘placeholder text’ that’s doggerel Latin based on an 18th century manuscript when you can have ‘placeholder text’ that includes bacon? No really: HEAD HERE and you’ll get 5 paragraphs of “all-meat” text to paste into your layout for whatever design purpose you have. Here’s a sample of what that means:

Magna eiusmod ex, bresaola ad brisket meatloaf pancetta cillum. Jowl beef ribs swine jerky t-bone. Esse sirloin excepteur pork chop id in, bacon short ribs pig rump strip steak. Laboris shoulder reprehenderit excepteur, t-bone meatball est sed pork belly beef ribs ullamco turkey sirloin boudin. Jowl strip steak cow, ground round ball tip pork chop ea beef. Andouille pork pastrami, voluptate meatloaf sirloin jowl ground round id pancetta pork chop ullamco. Short loin consequat aliquip, sirloin consectetur quis officia pariatur salami cow flank commodo adipisicing do.

Head to the bottom of that page and you can specify a different number of paragraphs, as well as whether you want some filler included with your yummy meat, or if you want to start with the words ‘Bacon ipsum dolor sit amet…’ and then carry on with meat or a meat mixture. Yes, anything goes better with Bacon!!™

How to Pitch Your Thing to the Media: the AUDIO

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So, finally, I have completed the editing of the audio for last month’s event with Stephen Quinn: How to Pitch Your Thing to the Media. Profuse thanks again to Mr. Quinn for his amazing generosity and enthusiasm throughout the entire organizing and carrying-out of the event.

Due to a few limitations that WordPress.com has for blogs hosted on their servers, the file is being stored over on the Atomic Fez Publishing web-site, in its own little Shebeen-dedicated folder. Thus, the MP3 ends up being declared an “outside source” by some anti-virus programmes and ad-block-based browser plug-ins. Should you get some sort of “hey! whattya doing! this could be bad!” warnings when you click the link below, reassure your software or browser that all is well, and to let you do what you want to.

Instead of clicking the little [PLAY] button immediately below and not moving for awhile, some of you might want to [right click] the words in the link, and select something like “Save link as…” or “Save target as…”, and thus download the file to listen to on your iPod or in the car, or wherever you listen to sound files that run 85 minutes in length.

How Not to Get the Media’s Attention

How Not to Get the Media’s Attention

How to Pitch Your Thing to the Media

Yes, that’s right, the file is nearly one hour-and-a-half long. I tried to trim out as much irrelevant material as possible — especially my prattling nonsense — but the problem is that Stephen Quinn is so gosh-darned informative and entertaining, that this is the shortest I could make it without taking forever to provide the audio. Hopefully Mr. Quinn will be amenable to returning in the near future so that we can hear more specifically on the topic of “journalism in the new millennium”, now that we’re in the post News of the World reality that he had the fortune of investigating whilst filling in at As it Happens this past fortnight.

The media package Mr. Quinn mentions at the 15 minute mark is the one you see in the photo above. An astonishingly odd piece of promotional material, even without the context that he places it within as part of his talk. Click the image for “biggification”.

The material Mr. Quinn plays is from Ira Basen’s six-part series “Spin Cycles”, which was twice run as part of CBC Radio1’s The Sunday Edition in 2007. You can learn more about that series — as well as access all six highly informative instalments — at this link RIGHT HERE.

I look forward to repeating the success of this event September 19th, upstairs at the Revel Room (on Abbott, between West Cordova and Trounce Alley).

Patience, Grasshopper

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I’m still working on the audio track from last week’s event with Stephen Quinn. Originally running one hour and forty minutes, I’m trying to get it down to something more reasonable, as well as remove any un-necessary nattering on my part. the end result ought to be nothing but informative yummy goodness about how to make your information appeal to the ever-cynical, un-caring, heartless bastards of the media.

In the meantime (and partly because none of the media seems to give a damn about my exciting news), have a look OVER HERE about how Atomic Fez Publishing has been short-listed for Best Small Press by the British Fantasy Society’s awards.