Romance reviews, writing meta and the occasional rant from a couple of techie readers/writers.
I love TVTropes with a love that should be outlawed in 53 states. That’s right. We need 3 more states to truly put into perspective the illicit illegality of my love.
TV Tropes is a time suck for certain.
I…might have to log in to my io9.com account just to say that.
Silly io9. The proper term is “man-titty.”
I loved this post and the links - $0.99 as a price point for a book is ridiculous. Dear Author is also having a discussion on eBook pricing. The comments are eye-opening in regards to buying budgets, perceived value, and production costs.
Thoughts:
1. Production costs mean crap to a reader, especially in regards to ebooks. No one wants to pay hardback costs for an eBook.
2. Series bundles for ebooks would be awesome, why can’t we get more of them from the big 6?
3. Indie presses like Carina Press, Samhain and Loose-Id are good places to get good, well-edited stories for a reasonable price. (this is kind of a DA commenter thing, but honestly that’s where I’m buying a lot of my eBooks too, so I concur).
4. The $.0.99 eBook that I bought earlier today was indeed worth about $0.99. I would rather pay more for well-made book, kthx.
5. Upshot: Personally, I don’t think I’d pay more than $9.99 for a book that’s only available in hardback/eBook form. There are exceptions to this rule - I bought Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs for $11.99, but it’s a more academic book, and I suppose I tolerate the higher price point because I expect that I’ll spend more time with the title than I do with fun reading.
—Heather
Which I would subtitle “Why Geeks are Still Often Quite Stupid about the ‘Real World’ “
I was indirectly linked through John Scalzi over at Whatever to a LiveJournal entry on e-publishing and ebook pricing by a Cat Valente. And I have to say, the entire argument resonated with me as being…
This UK couple is dedicated to recreating classic Mills & Boon romance covers!
Kushiel’s Dart
I was looking back through Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey, and I was re-impressed by the depth and breadth of the characterization. Also struck by how refreshing it is to read an adult novel that deals with child characters that isn’t a YA. It was like, oh yeah, that’s how you do it.
I will say that my tastes in book are probably more pretentious than some - I was an English major at one point, until I figured out that I wanted to be able to pay off my student loans once I got out of college.
I kid y’all. What I actually figured out is that I wanted to eat something besides snack ramen.
But to this day I do like fiction with pretty prose. Carey has a voice, and it’s a little highbrow to some, but I’d rather go highbrow than slog through oodles of “safe,” fiction, which bores me.
I’m mentioning it now because at some point soonish I’ll be writing up Duality by Renee Wildes, and I wanna talk about how refreshing it is to have an author with an actual voice. And worldbuilding! Woo hoo!
