therealbigal

Comment Threads

• Simon commented on Another deceptively simple question
  With apologies for replying to myself. I neglected a couple of things. The issue in play is a faliure of policy in the interaction of the society with cultures that make up parts of it. Its not a race issue or religious one as lack of interest in reading crosses lines of culture and ethnicity Simply , the educational system and "public well being" systems are not that good at encouraging recreational reading in any group . That reading is the real cornerstone of publishing. We've had this issue since the 1980's or before and have limited success with changing...
• philip.cresswell commented on Another deceptively simple question
  I'll hazard a guess that some eBooks will still look like someone took the dead tree version and OCRd it and then ran with the result without further editing or checking. That seems to be the current standard....
• zhochaka commented on Another deceptively simple question
  There are signs the "manly men" market is still there, even if some of them are pretty ugly. For instance, it's a thread in John Ringo's writing, with the dial turned up to 11 for the series which starts with Ghost. But what I remember is the existence of long series of short novels, reminiscent of the pulps. And I can't say I see that. Maybe that is a market for ebooks put out by non-traditional publishers: not self-published, but some sort of branded product turned out by a group of authors?...
• philgoetz commented on Another deceptively simple question
  There will be no distinction between a blog and a book. But the question is misguided. The focus will be on social interactions centered around text. The core corporate function related to text in the future will not be the business of choosing, editing, printing, and distributing it. It will be the business of connecting users to books, authors, and each other. Before worrying about the future format of books, how about reconsidering the present format of your website? The entire content of your website displays in a thin vertical strip that takes up less than one-fourth of the horizontal...
• Charlie Stross commented on Another deceptively simple question
  The focus will be on social interactions centered around text. Au contraire; reading [fiction] is an intensely private activity. And corporate requirements are divorced from those of the readers: corporations want profit, readers want fulfillment. (Finally: your advice wrt. web design is unwanted and will be ignored.)...