Quick note

Sorry no posts lately - been sick.  Hoping to get back on track next week.

NYT and the State of Life

In today's New York Times there's a full page ad by 900 authors telling Amazon to stop putting authors at risk.  Because, you know, only Amazon is at fault in the whole Amazon vs Hachett kerfluffle.  Yesterday, there was a love piece (having read it I can't really call it journalism) with Douglas Preston - the man behind the ad in today's NYT.  You can read it here.  Others have fisked it in other places - the best being in my opinion here.  I'm not going to try to even break it down.  Instead I want to look at something Mr. Preston said in the NYT article -

About half his book sales used to come from Amazon. But since the retailer started discouraging orders, his paperback sales are down 61 percent and his e-book sales are down 62 percent.

Lets look at this for a minute - Amazon, a retailer, is discouraging sales.  Being of some small journalistic training, I went to Amazon, and found Douglas Preston.  Wait, if Amazon is discouraging sales, wouldn't they not have any material for him on their site?  I can get his books on Kindle and in dead tree format.  I can't pre-order his books.  Perhaps this is how they are discouraging his sales?  Amazon and his publisher don't have a contract - Amazon doesn't know that they'll be getting his latest book when it comes out.  Why should they try to sell something they may not get?  More importantly why should Amazon even be carrying his books currently except as used materials?  They don't have a contract with the supplier.  They can sell what stock they have in paper back and hard back format and sell what's on their servers in e-book format, if they're feeling nice about it.  They don't have to sell his materials at all. 

The other part of this is even more important - his sales have dropped.  According to other articles, Mr. Preston has stated that Amazon has pulled his discounts.  Again, I looked on the page - some materials are discounted, some aren't.  But here's something I've not seen anyone talk about - if it requires a discount for your materials to sell,  perhaps the suggested retail price is to high.  We, as consumers have been taught for years to look for the best deal - the cheapest price.  When you buy a car from "Uncle Ahab's Auto Shop", you don't pay the MSRP - you get the best deal you can from the dealership or you move on to the next one that will work with you.  People do the same thing with their entertainment - if the best price comes at a discount you go for it.  But if the best you can get is what the manufacturer recommends, you're going to think twice about buying it.  Especially when it comes to entertainment - and lets face it, reading is entertainment.  When you're worried about feeding the family, you're not going to spend ten bucks when you can spend five.  And when your publisher insists that the best price for your goods is not something the market will bear, you're going to lose sales.  When your publisher wants e-book prices set high enough that its cheaper for people to buy paperbacks, your sales are going to suffer.  But that's not the retailers fault.  Its basic economics. 

Saturday Snippet.

Been writing dialog for twelve year olds - not sure I got it right, but I was a weird twelve year old. 

Shannon stepped back into the main compartment.  “We’re almost at the LZ dad.  The shuttle is on the ground.  You want to do a direct transfer?”

            “Yeah.  If the air traffic controllers don’t object?”

            “Nah, they said its fine.  They want the shuttle out of here so they can go back to sleep, I think,” she said, grinning.

            “Could be.  Or they’ve got one hell of a raid going on in a game and want to get back to it.  So, pull us up next to the shuttle and I’ll unass this beast through the airlock.”

            “I can even slow down if you want,” she said grinning wickedly.

            “You’ve been talking to your mom about my driving again, haven’t you?”

            “Nah.  Been watching old footage of you making delivery runs.  The one where you offload a rolling truck.”

            “That took . . . coordination.”

            “Uh huh.  I’m going back up front.  Love you,” she said hugging me.

            “Love you too.  Send your sister back, and I’ll get out of your hair as quick as I can.”

            Samarra came back into the cabin.  I waited till she had taken a seat, then gave her a wolfish grin.  And waited.  I love my youngest daughter, but some days she can’t take silence and a knowing grin.

            “Umm dad, I didn’t mean to do it.”

            “Do what?”

            “Whatever it is you’ve found out about.”

            “You mean giving your brother shit because he wants to be a pilot?  Jed, go up front with Shannon for a bit, will you?”  I don’t believe in public humiliation – unless, of course, the inciting behavior is public.  Jed got up and wandered forward.  “And turn off the pickups back here, OK?”

            “Ok, geeze,” he said, slouching his way forward.

            “Oh, that.  It’s just such, such macho behavior.”

            “Did you ever think he wants to be a pilot because it interests him?”

            “But it’s, it’s like he just pulled it out of nowhere.  And it’s fun when he gets frustrated and storms off.”

            “And?  How’d you feel when Shannon was tweaking you about geography over anthropology?”

            “It’s not the same,” she said employing the logic of a twelve year old.

            “How is it different?”

            “Anybody can be a geographer.  Most pilots are male, according to Ms. Davis.”

            “I see.  And she says this is because of?”

            “Gender bias in the selection process.”

            “Hmm.  Has she explained that part of the problem might be that women like herself tell girls it’s hard to be a pilot?  That the perceived bias might be part of cultural norming that says men should be pilots?  Has she talked about the studies that show women are better pilots than men, or the fact that sixty five percent of the pilots here on Mars and out in the belt are female?”

            “No.”

            Great.  Something else to bring up when I got back from Burroughs.  “Tell you what, I want you to do some work while I’m gone.  Research both what Ms. Davis told you and what I told you.  Then make your argument either way, but I want to see the data to back things up.”

            “But dad, I’ve got a ton of work to do for school.”

            “And a ton of work to show you’re going to be someone who thinks, not just someone who parrots what others have told them is the ‘truth’.  Right now, I’m kinda wondering which it’s going to be.”

            “Yes papa.  I’ll get it done.”

            “Good girl,” I said, hugging her.  The truck rolled to a stop.  “I think we’re here.  Want to check my suit fittings for me?”