[Links]
[links] Link salad has been sitting here since Wednesday morning
Amazon and the pipeline — Anna Tambour is wise about the Amazon issues, specifically from the international perspective.
Hey, 1997 – Macmillan called, they want the Net Book Agreement back — WaPo with a contrarian view of Macmillan’s moves against Amazon.
As I start to write my latest book, I fear for the future of publishing —The Guardian with views on disintermediation. I submit that the role of publishers in the story telling cycle is not intermediation in the usual sense of distribution, as the publisher provides significant value add.
Kulula Air with a rather novel paint job — (Via x planes.)
Iowa Pride Network: House Republicans seek to bully gay students — Des Moines, IA – February 4 – House Representatives Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig and Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley, co-sponsored legislation introduced today which seeks to exclude LGBT students from the 2007 Iowa Safe Schools Law. Stay classy, conservative America, that’s why we love you. And can anyone tell me the alleged logic behind this?
AP photo shows Palin cheated, read notes off her hand at Teabagger conference — I’m not sure why that’s cheating, but it’s very seventh grade. Which fits with the entire ethos of the Tea Party movement. More here. Note that Palin has mockd Obama for using a teleprompter. Using your hand is an improvement?
Saying ‘Constitution’ while meaning ‘Lawlessness’: Palin attacks Obama — “Constitutional” is one of those conservative code words that means whatever the speaker wants it to mean. Much like “original intent”, which winks at the 9th amendment, disregards the 1st and worships the second. Intellectual consistency was never a conservative strong point, but Palin transcends the absurd.
?otD: Can you tell me why the bells are ringing? Nothing’s happened in a million years.
2/7/2010
Writing time yesterday: 0 minutes (infusion day)
Body movement: 40 minute suburban walk
Hours slept: 10.5 (soundly)
This morning’s weigh-in: 227.0
Yesterday’s chemo stress index: 8/10
Currently reading: [between books]
Posted: 10:42 am Sun February 07 2010 |
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You are reading the blog of Jay Lake, speculative fiction writer and author of hundreds of short stories, many novels, and winner of the John W. Campbell Award.
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Cora
February 8th, 2010 at 5:35 pmRegarding the British net book agreement, Germany has a very similar system called “Buchpreisbindung”, which means that the publisher gets to set the price for a given book and that no retailer whether it’s a physical bookstore, Amazon, a department or grocery store, can sell the book for less than that price. Exceptions are imported books, used books, remainders or damaged books, book club editions and books older than 18 months, provided the publisher agrees to release the book from the fixed price. The idea behind the fixed price system (which is legally binding) is to protect books as a cultural good and ensure that a wide variety of books are published.
As an avid reader, I have never been the biggest fan of the “Buchpreisbindung”, because it causes all sorts of inconveniences. For example, there are no bookstore discount cards in Germany. I cannot use coupons for books, even if the coupon was issued by a company that is primarily a book retailer (e.g. I cannot use an Amazon coupon to buy books at Amazon, including import books that are not even affected).
But seeing how popular bestsellers are used as loss leaders by supermarkets and other non-book retailers in the US and UK actually makes me appreciate the “Buchpreisbindung”, particularly considering what happened in the UK after the net book agreement was lifted.
I spent a year at university in the UK in 1996, shortly before the net book agreement was lifted. At the time, I could buy books at Waterstone’s, Books ETC, Dillon’s (general chains), Blackwell (mainly academic books), W.H. Smith (magazines and bestsellers), The Book Warehouse (reduced and remainders) as well as various independents. There also was another chain named Ottokar’s which for some reason didn’t have stores in my area. I don’t recall whether British supermarkets even stocked books in those days – at any rate I never bought any there.
Now, fourteen years later, Dillon’s and Ottokar’s are completely gone. Books ETC was bought up by Borders (and became much worse as a result) and is now gone as well along with Borders UK. W.H. Smith and Blackwell are still around, though Smith’s selection is more limited to bestsellers than it was in the 1990s and Blackwell is still mainly academically focussed. A lot of the independents have vanished as well or were taken over by Waterstone’s. I don’t know what became of The Book Warehouse, but I haven’t seen one of their stores in years. So when I want to buy books in Britain – even in big cities that are not London – I am pretty much limited to Waterstone’s (which is a lot more bestseller focussed than it used to be), W.H. Smith, Blackwell, if there’s a university nearby, and whatever independents there may be.