I Hope Macmillan Loses Their Shirts!

Macmillan Starts Film/TV Division To Produce Book-Based Fare

Deneen said that Macmillan Films will be somewhere in between Random House Films and Alloy Entertainment. If books come through Macmillan divisions, fine, but Deneen sees most of the properties coming from ideas generated in-house.

“We are mostly looking to develop book ideas that work both as novels and movies and TV shows,” Deneen told Deadline. “We will develop the ideas in-house, and hire writers who’ll share in the success of the projects. We will retain all rights and hopefully set them up.” Macmillan Films properties will be shopped in Hollywood by Sylvie Rabineau of RWSG.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

“Ideas generated in-house”?! You’re supposed to be a publisher, not think you can suddenly create and write! Oh wait, you know you can’t write — which is why you’ll “hire writers.”

Writers who you will thoroughly screw because: “We will retain all rights.”

Hey, you pinheaded, pinstriped schmucks with delusions of moguldom and juvenile visions of hobnobbing with Botoxed uneducated celebs at award shows, we’re wise to your crap, so knock it off.

And to you little pissant interns and NaNoWriMo morons who’ll jump at the chance to “write” for these parasites, you’d better do it under a pseudonym because you won’t be getting any respect from real writers, you pustulant hack scabs.

Update: Book Publisher Macmillan Launches New Film and TV Division

We just want people who can write great books and are also team players.

There’s the Quote Of Death right there. Writers are not team players, you shithead! Writing is not a goddammed sport!

Additional, Previously Here:

Cannell’s Warning
Cannell’s Warning: Part Two
Cannell Created. TV Networks Only Sell.

NaNoWriCrapMo

Barnes & Noble vs. Amazon, Round Bazillion

With PubIt!, their new self-publishing system, Barnes & Noble goes after the wee amounts of cash produced every time someone sells their unedited Vampire Elf Unicorn Romance novel via BN’s ebook system.

I can’t argue with her.

For every person out there who is a writer — a person who must write, who is unsuited to everything else except writing — there are hundreds of eejits who have no business being near a keyboard attempting to create. It’s no accident that the inventories of self-publishing sites balloon in December, after that stupid NaNoWriMo.

You WANT These Books: They Nearly Made Me Buy A Kindle!

In the 1970s, I was taking out a ton of books from the Brooklyn Public Library in the manner that has always served me best: by invoking serendipity.

I’d grab something that looked interesting and it’d usually open up an entire Dewey Decimal System category to me.

One of these books I never forgot — except for the damned title. And author.

After scraping my brain for a long time, a lot of searching on the Internet revealed the book’s title, the name of the writer, and also unlocked his biography, other works of his I’d never heard of, and a heartbreak: the writer had died just a few years before I discovered who he was.

His books weren’t available in e. In fact, they weren’t even still in print. I got copies via used booksellers at ABEBooks.

For the longest time I yearned to have these books in e. Would I have to scan them? At one point, I was very seriously thinking about tracking down his estate for the electronic publishing rights. Because his books deserve to be available eternally.

They are life-changing.

Why Kobo Will Be Around A While

How Waterstone’s lost and Kobo won my ebook custom

i could of course have bought more from Waterstone’s and used txtr’s website to download them to the iPad but it’s a lot more convenient to use an app which downloads new book straight to the iPad. For that reason all of my new purchases have gone to Kobo.

Not only does Kobo already have an app, I can download the raw ePub files from their website to store safely on my Sony reader should I ever want to use them on it. From my point of view it’s an easy win in my favour.

Waterstone’s uses standard ePub with “classic” Adobe DRM. The lack of an iOS app is killing them — and Sony over here in the US too. People want to be able to move their books around to different devices.

I have to admire Kobo’s cleverness. They started out with their own system then added ePub downloading. They’ve given people the best of both worlds.

Previously here:

Exclusive: Borders Goes All-In With Kobo
Sneak Peek: Kobo Reader WiFi Lilac
I Am In Mourning For Kobo
Kobo Books Is On The New Blackberry Playbook Tablet
Kobo Reader Versus Kindle 3 Screen
Free ePub eBooks At Kobo
Kobo Updates Its Android App
Kobo’s CEO Speaks
iDevice Kobo App With DRM-Free ePub
Just A Brief Note About The Kobo Reader
Kobo Reader With WiFi Is Leaked
Red Kobo Reader!
Kobo: Desktop View Vs. ePub Formatting
Kobo’s New Desktop App
Kobo Reader Promo Video
The eBookworld Earthquake Begins Today!
Kobo Sends eBooks and eReaders to Canadian Troops in Afghanistan
The Amazing Race

New Sony Reader Ships “Unbroken”?

I get to turn to a Warren Ellis post I’ve cited before: Shipping Broken.

Contrast that to this excerpt from Sony PRS-650 Reader: first impressions:

I showed the 650 to a friend, who said “Ah, e-ink, I want to get one of these, what a pity they’re not touch screen”, and he touches it, the page turns, and he goes “oh…!” A win for Sony’s designers.

Interesting.

Amazon Can Exterminate Everyone Else In eBooks

People have wanted Amazon to embrace the ePub eBook format.

I think that would be a disaster for the world of eBooks.

Amazon would quickly become an outright monopoly.