Harry Connolly's Blog, page 207

Wrapping up for the day

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 t...

Amazonfail: ending?

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.

Whoa. Also: Sheesh.

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...

Valentine's Day Contest

The finalists for the Dating Hell contest have been chosen. To vote on a winner, you have to drop by my LiveJournal entry.

Oh, go on. The stories are fun.

More Amazon.comFail

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...

Contest reminder

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.

Speaking of ebooks

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.

As far as the writing goes…

… 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...

Randomness for 2/2

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...

Welcome to February, the month with the most wonderful holiday of all

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...