Matt’s Comments (group member since Mar 06, 2009)

Matt’s comments from the fiction files redux group.

spoilerish?

I've read this one a few times over the years - I like the latitude so called 'speculative fiction' allows the author - I like that finally very little of what makes this story 'science fiction' factors into the essence of its true dynamic - setting? a final frisson of recognition? it adds an extra dimension I suppose when you realize the what and where but that's not really where the beauty lies - I imagine JG Ballard could do something very similar with a ww2 pilot say...

because the people at B&N are not the ones who are going to lose their jobs first - it will be the independents who actually do care

dude they never get to talk to the buyers - the buyers are in offices thousands of miles away - there is no connection at all - there is a recieving warehouse, there are books that arrive, there are minimum wage slaves, there are shelves - that's one of the biggest divides between b&n/borders and an indie right there

and Im sorry but most of them dont give a shit - most of them are picking up a check - they dont care about books - they dont care about e-books or what they represent for the future - they're pulling down a pay-check - that's the reality at a major chain on front line staff - they really dont care and they are not paid to

Patrick wrote: "Well yeah...but the employees and the clerks are usually the front lines of book buying ..."

false - both of the companies you mentioned have large staffs of buyers located in their corporate offices meeting with publishers and making frontlist and category buys and in both cases even backlist replenishment is more or less automated - store level buying in the cases of these corporate megaliths is minimal

Patrick wrote: "Maybe the clerks and the employees of the bookstores need to change their approaches by encouraging more P.O.D. writers to try sell works that the employees notice and like because as far as I see ..."

um - sounds like your beef aint with the clerks and employees in the store (and ps - both those brands have employee recommend sections and I doubt highly you'll find much Patterson there - even money someone on staff has a vampire jones so i wont say the same about Meyer)

your beef is with the publishers and buyers - not to mention the consumer - the reason Meyer is so ubiquitous is because you people are buying it in such numbers (Hachette certainly isnt giving away money for placement on it)are you suggesting a retailer should ignore that kind of sales trend? that's pretty self serving

Patterson that's a different story - the publisher expends a significant % of its marketing fund on Patterson but at the same time again all those 7 or 8 books he 'writes' a year do sell well - far better than any POD title would - far better in fact than an espresso machine's entire POD inventory would

and btw are you aware of the cost structure on the espresso machine?

He first talked about the financial incentve to produce them and "abolish" such things as... As well as, further down the chain, salaries and overheads in bookstores."

um - he's talking about putting alot of people out of jobs, why is that a good thing?

wish there was a way we could tie this together with the other two semi-active e-book threads

Jcamilo wrote: "Ok, now that I have be drinking enough and stealing hats, thus I can asnwwer about something which was not presented int he first post, despite my attempt. I blame Matt, goddamn undrunken person!
"

not so fast there oro - not a safe assumption at all vis. my sobriety that night (perhaps only in relative terms)

check your email - I have a question/slash homework project for you

yep, him

God I want to do this

define 'deserve' - I would say that a very small percentage of people trying their hand at being serious writers can live on what they make just from their writing - are all of them 'deserving'? that's the other question

Im kind of fed up with the ubiquitous notion that books 'cost too much' (Bobby Haft you cursed little prick) - you all love books and if you look at them just in terms of entertainmnet (and they are capable of being so much more than that but)books are actually kind of a bargain hour for hour and dollar for dollar spent

but retailers with their discounting and constant undercutting have created a certain expectation with their customers and that has been nothing short of folly

you love your books, you love your authors - pay for them

a few things

digital royalty rate is 20% not 10% - the 1.88 quoted above must be on the typical $9.99 e-book rate - hence roughly 20%

http://www.publishersweekly.com/artic...

depending on print run $4 per copy is actually high for cost of printing a book (it's actually closer to %10 of cover price)

http://ireaderreview.com/2009/05/03/b...

ps - the retail bit is actually mistated - as posted in the example the book is a loss to the retailer (especially if you factor in the cost of the wholesaler) - not so (not sure where they got those numbers - in any event they would be highly variable depending on dsitribution practices and location/rent)

pps - n.b. the first link contradicts the second on the matter of author royalty because the latter is referring to the physical model

Amazon.com says it will give in to publishing giant Macmillan and agree to sell electronic versions of its books even at prices it considers too high.

New copies of Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall," Andrew Young's "The Politician" and other books published by Macmillan were unavailable Saturday on Amazon.com, after the retailer pulled the titles in a surprising reaction to the publisher's new pricing model for e-books.

Amazon wants to tamp down prices as competitors such as Barnes & Noble Inc., Sony Corp. and Apple Inc. line up to challenge its dominant position in the rapidly expanding market. But Macmillan and other publishers have criticized Amazon for charging just $9.99 for best-selling e-books on its Kindle e-reader, a price publishers say is too low and could hurt sales of higher priced hardcovers.

Amazon told customers in a posting on its online Kindle Forum Sunday that it "expressed our strong disagreement" with Macmillan's determination to charge higher prices. Under Macmillan's model, to be put in place in March, e-books will be priced from $12.99 to $14.99 when first released and prices will change over time.

"We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books," Amazon said in the posting.

Macmillan is one of the world's largest English-language publishers with divisions including St. Martin's Press, Henry Holt & Co. and Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

"We are in discussions with Amazon about how to resolve our differences," Macmillan CEO John Sargent told The Associated Press Sunday. He declined to comment further.

Amazon said other publishers and independent presses might "see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative."

Amazon faces new challengers to the Kindle, including Barnes & Noble's Nook and Sony's e-book reader, plus the upcoming iPad table computer from Apple. The Seattle company sells about six e-books for every 10 paper ones when titles are available in either format. However, the popularity of e-books has driven publishers such as Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins Hachette Book Group USA to say they will delay the release of e-books in order to protect hardcover sales.

Jim wrote: the interviewed pirater said if books sold for $10-$12, then pirating wouldn't be worth doing

most e-books retail at $10 (which btw also cuts away from that $1.88 an author is said to have made per copy)

Martyn wrote: "Jim wrote: "Martyn wrote: "pirating books is fucking stupid. just like pirating movies."


thanks for all the intellectual input
"

dude, it's simple. "

martyn I'll say it for him: 'chill out'

(at least that's what he suggested I do last time I got too pithy)

Kerry wrote: "It was quite a shock to realize that Salinger was 91 years old. His reclusivity kept him perpetually young.

"

in some ways Im just the opposite - he stopped being (at least as a public persona) a long time ago

then again he is still alive in just the same way that Cary Grant or Katherine Hepburn are - just open up one of his books

http://www.esquire.com/features/jd-sa...

http://www.slate.com/id/2219768/pagen...

one of my favorite journalists Ron Rosenbaum (who turned me on to Charles Portis btw)

Martyn wrote: "Matt wrote: "Im with oro - what do you think people talked about before tv brought us american idol and survivor?"

Bill Clinton's liking for cigars?

"

ok but what about before that?