Warning: Politics For those of you following the SOPA/PIPA to-do, be warned: if you live in California, both of your Senators are flogging hard for this thing. Because of that, for these two characters I actually wrote a note rather than just calling, tweeting, or petitioning. In case you want something to riff on, I’m [...]
Before I start, I should make something plain: I like Amazon–they’ve been incredibly, uncharacteristically work-with-able on a level that’s unprecedented in the publishing industry. I am delighted to have my books available in their store, I’ve had an excellent time working with CreateSpace for POD books, and very much enjoyed access to what is currently [...]
We’ve been waiting for it. We’ve been talking about “What will happen if/when?” We’ve speculated ho how it will change things when the mythical species arrives: The $99 e-reader. Well, now we get to find out. Today, Amazon unveiled the $79 Kindle, as well as a $99 model. Don’t take my word for it, you [...]
So, you want to make your work–book, movie, sculpture, whatever–perfect, don’t you? You want it to shine. And you’re going to polish it, rewrite it, re-imagine it, and retcon it every chance you get? Or maybe you just can’t resist adding those few last-minute flourishes? Well, you’re in good company. The impulse to tinker is [...]
I’m going way out on a limb here. I’m only a lay enthusiast in the field of economics, not an expert in the field, but I’ve got a middling amount of business experience in a variety of different fields, and a strange notion has been growing on my mind lately: What if the ebook revolution [...]
Dropbox has posted a public explanation for their rapid TOS changes today. As suspected, the email they’ve gotten from concerned users hasn’t gone unnoticed–that’s a good thing. Am I now recommending them? Hell no. Assuming the best of intentions, I think they are in error about the kind of license they need to run a [...]
Note: The situation in the following post has been resolved for now. Dropbox has taken everyone’s outrage seriously, and has fixed the problem. More information here. I am leaving this post and the follow-ups up because it contains a good deal of information on how to protect yourself and your intellectual property when working in [...]
Most people why buy a book or pick it up from the library just want to read it–that’s an excellent thing! Sometimes, though, us authors get email from fans who, for whatever reason, what to know what extra they can do. If you’re in that camp, this is for you. If that doesn’t describe you, [...]
A funny thing happens during times of great industrial upheaval: Everyone wants a piece of the new deal, but nobody wants to take what they perceive to be a risk. Most established players retrench, hold on to what’s familiar, and try to shout down anyone with a contravening opinion. It’s human nature to get defensive [...]
If 2007 was the year I got serious about writing, then 2010 was the year when attitude and education caught up with intent. Think of it as the difference between declaring a major (2007) and doing your first internship in a Ph.D. program (2010). Up till this year, I did one book a year and [...]
You walk into the grocery store to buy apples, but when you reach the produce section the apples are twice what they are across town, and the quality isn’t quite as good as you remember them from the other store. Do you buy them? Maybe, if you’re in a rush and apples are a must [...]
And, from the kitchen this weekend we have for you a lovely Link Salad, with leaves of history and science, garnished with a healthy dose of whimsy. But first, I begin with a special treat for my free-wheeling brewer friends. Beer has always been a problem in space — not because of drunk piloting, but [...]
There’s a conversation going on at the always controversial blog of Dean Wesley Smith. The post itself is interesting for its unconventional wisdom, but it is the comments that are important. In it, several authors with pub credits in the dozens and loads of literary experience talk explicitly about contract terms, money management, professionalism, and [...]
— — — — Previous Chapter: Interlude: Think Contracts Don’t Matter? — — — — Most of this series concentrates on general contract principles. This week’s entry is a little different. It’s devoted solely to the creative industries (businesses like films, music, books, theater, etc. which depend on artists for their grist), and I’m posting [...]
Since I’ve been doing a blog series on the Principles of Contracts, I have to include this bit of news about the biggest, ugliest case of a handshake deal I’ve seen in quite some time. Seems that the publishers and authors of The Shack never really figured out who owned what, and now they’re out [...]
