Just got my (several months) pre-ordered copy of TFM from the Book Su^H^HDepository. So there's hope for others hanging out for their Stross fix.
Approximate sequence:
Wow! Finally! (DEVOUR) Damn - I've run out of book. Wow, again. (Takes phone off hook and de-batteries mobile... grabs The Atrocity Archives & The Jenifer Morgue for back-to-back reading of all three)
More Laundry please. I would like to be able to pre-order the next one ASAP.
Oh by the way, you don't seem very fond of the Pet Shop Boys?
Ian Mackenzie.
]]>The current publishing model is so borked that the nearest bookshop with new books I might voluntarily buy is about 100 miles from here, in a city I avoid. (rant) And the price of books in NZ is so bad that it's cheaper to buy from a UK website and have chunks of dead tree shipped to within 10 degrees of the most distant point on the planet's surface than to buy from a business in the same country. (/rant)
Oh, and when I discover an author, it turns out that only one of his books is still in print, so that for the rest, about $2 goes for the book, $10 for postage, and fscking $0 to the author!
I'm happy to pay for my reading habit. I want to be able to have some of my $$$ going to help Charlie live in a modicum of comfort while writing whatever he wants. (The results have been good so far and I don't want to interfere with that)
I want whatever future book model emerges to have the following constraints:
Most of what I pay goes to the author (or author+publisher if the relationship in Charlie's discussion of why there is no tipjar continues)
DRM means no sale. I'm perfectly happy to be responsible for backing up and care & feeding of whatever device I read with (although dead trees have a pretty good user interface imho)
Having to buy $iKoolAid(tm) device to read means no sale.
Having to use $iKoolAid(tm) software to access $iKoolAid(tm) store to buy the book means no sale.
If at all possible, there should be a dead tree as well as electronic version for purchase.
If at all possible, it should be possible to but out of print books and have as much as possible of the purchase price go to the author.
(substitute any proprietary hardware or software for $iKoolAid(tm) - I don't want any of it)
This probably means that I'm going to end up as a cranky old git lugging 2 pounds of Open Hardware Foundation device and mumbling obscenities at the Kewl Kids as they tell their implants to install ServicePack8.4 of Microsoft AllYourMindsAreBelongToUs_1.9 (tm)
And that's the optimistic future...
Ian Mackenzie
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