{"id":2368,"date":"2012-03-07T09:42:07","date_gmt":"2012-03-07T14:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatsociety.org\/?p=2368"},"modified":"2018-10-29T22:04:45","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T02:04:45","slug":"kindlenomics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/?p=2368","title":{"rendered":"Kindlenomics"},"content":{"rendered":"

I suppose we\u2019ve all been following this Kindle bullshit, right? If not, you can go read this article<\/a>, and this one has a roundup of what the media\u2019s been reporting<\/a>. You owe it to yourself \u2013 assuming you possess at least some level of intelligence \u2013 to study this development. It\u2019s important. It can hurt you.
\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis should be a matter of concern and a cautionary tale for the smaller presses whose licenses will come up for renewal,\u201d said Andy Ross, an agent and a former bookseller. \u201cThey are being offered a Hobson\u2019s choice of accepting Amazon\u2019s terms, which are unsustainable, or losing the ability to sell Kindle editions of their books, the format that constitutes about 60 percent of all e-books.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Basically, Amazon has taken bold steps to destroy independent presses <\/a>and create some sort of horrible literary wasteland where people who read books like Life of Pi<\/em> rule and get to rape us daily while we clean out their toilets.<\/p>\n

Margins with physical books were traditionally low, which meant that bookstores, publishers and distributors often did no more than scrape by. When Amazon began, it sold books at deep discounts but still had to depend on the good will of publishers.<\/p>\n

With e-books, the situation is more fluid. Readers expect them to be cheaper, which Amazon has been able to encourage because it is now a publisher as well.<\/p>\n

Traditional publishers, however, have their own modest margins to worry about. They worry that if e-books are priced too low, the public will devalue their worth, and the publishers might wither away \u2014 something, they fear, that would suit Amazon just fine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I hate ereaders and have returned two Kindles, so far, that were given to me as gifts. Sorry, assholes. Ereaders are all soulless, stupid, and possibly demonically evil. People say, oh, I can get thousands of books in one place and read more and save space!<\/p>\n

Really? You would actually read thousands of books? Most of you fuckers have a hard time struggling through three books a year. And if you do actually own thousands of books \u2013 what\u2019s the storage issue? Do you live in a shed? Does your religion forbid you from using bookshelves? Do you have a mental disorder that stops you from reselling them or giving them away?<\/p>\n

Oh, it\u2019s more convenient! Is it? You\u2019d rather have a $150 shiny gadget that needs a fucking boatload of accessories and, at some point, a recharge as you ride the train through the ghetto? That\u2019s more convenient than a paperback you bought for a penny from the used bookstore?<\/p>\n

Oh, okay, maybe it is. I think you own a Kindle because you\u2019re a weak-willed consumer whore who does whatever you\u2019re told. America\u2019s battered wife syndrome version of consumer culture at work. But, maybe I\u2019m wrong\u2026<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s address the soullessness issue. I always loved the bit in 1998\u2019s The Croupier<\/em>, the ultimate film about writing, where the author dreams of seeing his book being read by all the sad commuters on the train. I know I\u2019ve certainly bought books because I saw someone reading them on the train. But, now, everyone\u2019s thumbing their Kindle. It\u2019s all so cold and clinical, and benefits nobody except Amazon. They make all the money off of their gadgets (which, yes, are made by slaves, FYI).<\/p>\n

Their current move to pressure indie presses is something that\u2019s been brewing since December<\/a>. And it\u2019s the start of an all out assault on writing as well as publishing. I say mail your Kindles back to Amazon. Hell \u2013 smash them! Right now. Throw them away. Amazon’s actions violate the very core of our being. This isn\u2019t about using a popular song for a commercial, or remaking a classic movie. Writing is the pipeline to our souls. It\u2019s the voice in our heads that forms our thoughts and dreams. It\u2019s the intimate fucking song of life.<\/p>\n

We should be enraged about this.<\/p>\n

Shouldn\u2019t we?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I suppose we\u2019ve all been following this Kindle bullshit, right? If not, you can go read this article, and this one has a roundup of what the media\u2019s been reporting. You owe it to yourself \u2013 assuming you possess at …<\/p>\n

Kindlenomics<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[402,176,127],"class_list":["post-2368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-books","tag-publishing","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2368"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2371,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368\/revisions\/2371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}