Of Ebooks and Flesh Eaters
Many thanks to everyone who responded to my last posting.
Overall, people seem to think that the future is coming, whether we like it or not, and that it is likely to be benign rather than pestiferous, although there are various issues to yet be addressed.
Quite so, I would say. It is, after all, a question of the spreading of democracy in publishing and personally I would support democracy wherever it pops up.
True, there will be an endless stream of drivel produced by this new democracy. But 'twas ever so. And does it matter? We all know how to access whatever it is we want to read, from Some Axiomatic Paradigms in Multiple Set Theory to Go Screw 'Em, Big Boy under the current publisher-run system. Why should it be any different under an democratic electronic one?
***
I'm still waiting for my web host to come up with a new webpage for me to offer Guide Yourself to Happiness from. The hold-up seems to be that there is a new form of PayPal now available, suited for small payments. This would suit me fine as I am offering 'GY2H' for only £2.95 as a PDF. Normal PayPal would charge me a large percentage of this price as commission. The new variety should be much cheaper. Unfortunately, my web host seems to be having trouble sorting it out. I was hoping to have the book 'out there' in time for Christmas, but that doesn't seem likely now, and the hard copy version is a non-starter until I've got the webpage. Stymied. Months of work… and now a grinding full stop, and nothing I can do about it, except to pester my web host and hope for the best.
What do you think of £2.95 for an ebook? I reckon it's about fair, myself. I've seen all sorts of complaints from people who have been asked to pay as much for an e-version as for a paper one. That is just ridiculous, in my eyes. One complainant says she was asked for more for the ebook than the paper one! Publishers are having a hard time with controlling their greed, I think.
Any views?
***
Funny how you don't spare a thought for flesh-eating fish for months on end then they come into your life twice within a few days.
A friend has just emailed to tell me of his holiday in Crete, during which he slipped on some wet stones while descending to the beach. He cut his knee quite badly but could still walk, and thought that a sea splash would help to wash the gravel out of the wound. So it did. But it also felt a bit… creepy. He looked down and was alarmed to see a fish chewing off the skin round the cut.
At about the same time I was in a midland town and was surprised to notice a shop next to M&S where you can dangle your feet in a bath of water while small tiddler-style fish chew off the dead skin. 'Only £10 for 15 minutes'. The place was over half full all the time I was there, peering through the plate glass window, miming scenes from 'Jaws'. All the customers looked a little.. 'startled' but otherwise content. Only one of them had had a leg reduced to a ragged stump, but that was probably due to a rogue piranha. I banged on the window to point it out and the management was in like a shot with an electrical stun gun and was most apologetic and offered the man a very attractive bamboo prosthetic on the spot. They also bandaged his smouldering hair with a smart little Gucci bandana.
Carpe diem!
Overall, people seem to think that the future is coming, whether we like it or not, and that it is likely to be benign rather than pestiferous, although there are various issues to yet be addressed.
Quite so, I would say. It is, after all, a question of the spreading of democracy in publishing and personally I would support democracy wherever it pops up.
True, there will be an endless stream of drivel produced by this new democracy. But 'twas ever so. And does it matter? We all know how to access whatever it is we want to read, from Some Axiomatic Paradigms in Multiple Set Theory to Go Screw 'Em, Big Boy under the current publisher-run system. Why should it be any different under an democratic electronic one?
***
I'm still waiting for my web host to come up with a new webpage for me to offer Guide Yourself to Happiness from. The hold-up seems to be that there is a new form of PayPal now available, suited for small payments. This would suit me fine as I am offering 'GY2H' for only £2.95 as a PDF. Normal PayPal would charge me a large percentage of this price as commission. The new variety should be much cheaper. Unfortunately, my web host seems to be having trouble sorting it out. I was hoping to have the book 'out there' in time for Christmas, but that doesn't seem likely now, and the hard copy version is a non-starter until I've got the webpage. Stymied. Months of work… and now a grinding full stop, and nothing I can do about it, except to pester my web host and hope for the best.
What do you think of £2.95 for an ebook? I reckon it's about fair, myself. I've seen all sorts of complaints from people who have been asked to pay as much for an e-version as for a paper one. That is just ridiculous, in my eyes. One complainant says she was asked for more for the ebook than the paper one! Publishers are having a hard time with controlling their greed, I think.
Any views?
***
Funny how you don't spare a thought for flesh-eating fish for months on end then they come into your life twice within a few days.
A friend has just emailed to tell me of his holiday in Crete, during which he slipped on some wet stones while descending to the beach. He cut his knee quite badly but could still walk, and thought that a sea splash would help to wash the gravel out of the wound. So it did. But it also felt a bit… creepy. He looked down and was alarmed to see a fish chewing off the skin round the cut.
At about the same time I was in a midland town and was surprised to notice a shop next to M&S where you can dangle your feet in a bath of water while small tiddler-style fish chew off the dead skin. 'Only £10 for 15 minutes'. The place was over half full all the time I was there, peering through the plate glass window, miming scenes from 'Jaws'. All the customers looked a little.. 'startled' but otherwise content. Only one of them had had a leg reduced to a ragged stump, but that was probably due to a rogue piranha. I banged on the window to point it out and the management was in like a shot with an electrical stun gun and was most apologetic and offered the man a very attractive bamboo prosthetic on the spot. They also bandaged his smouldering hair with a smart little Gucci bandana.
Carpe diem!
posted by Chas Griffin at 10:22 am
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