Comments on: How John Birmingham lost a reader

By: John Wilker

John Wilker — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:38:05 +0000

I can only speak to your points as a consumer. Audio books aren't even in the equation for me, so it's a sacrifice for non business from me, and I've met very few people who use audio books in my entire life. Maybe they all live in UT or something?

By: Wellduh

Wellduh — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:43:06 +0000

Additionally if there are AUDIO books made then contractually text to speech violates the standard audio performance clauses particularly for exclusive audio performance contracts.

And YES most authors should know that unless they are in the habit of signing away all their book rights including future movie deals in one big bundle.

So we could assume that either they didn't have their morning coffee to wake up and remember they sold those audio rights to a separate publisher or they let their agents worry about all those details.

But most likely the authors are just politely pretending that you are not a cheap skate. Audio books typically cost 10-20% more than the hardback printing and do not drop in price until 3rd or 4th printing of the paperback editions…and still cost 40-60% more than the trade printings. Everyone makes a mint on the audio book versions.

By: Wellduh

Wellduh — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:29:58 +0000

Recent publication ALWAYS disable Text to speech for LEGAL reasons on works that contain HATE speech.

Why? Because the publisher would be liable in part if some racist decided to repeated replay the content in a public area. Or some innocent party got that crap beaten out of them for accidental play.

Audio books are NOT as big a problem because there is tighter language FORBIDDING their being played in public forums.

By: bmjmiller

bmjmiller — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 21:24:05 +0000

I had heard of the series before, but hestiated to buy. When the first book was offered free I hestiated no longer. And he hooked me. As soon as I finished the first I bought the second. And as soon as I finished the second I bought the third. So I say thanks to the publisher for making the first one available free. If it was a strategy, it worked. As this technology matures I expect publishers (and authors) to get more savvy in marketing to readers of electronic books. I have no problem with them putting limitations on what they sell so long as they make the limitations clear up front, and give me the opportunity to decide whether I want to pay what they ask for a limited product. As for the bias against the military the above commenter saw, I don't buy it. Some military people were portrayed as bigoted, oafish, etc. Others were portrayed as intelligent, compassionate, and competent. Sounds like the same mix as real life.

As to the perceived bias against the right, I did get the feeling that Mr. Birmingham is probably further to the left on the political spectrum than I am. But having looked for some of his columns online I find that we agree on quite a bit politically.

By: joev11

joev11 — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:02:33 +0000

I am fairly new to the John Birmingham series of alternate history and although then premise for this series is excellent, its actual portrayal by the author is such that I managed to get through just 3 books and will not read another. The reason, simply enough is these books are pretty strongly biased against the military and the political right. The military is portrayed by Mr Birmingham as oafs, low brow and wanting nothing better then to put citizens in camps while they run around destroying other countries who have dared even criticize us. References made of soldiers who come from "Podunk" indicates Mr Birmingham's elitist views on the military. I suppose the claim that the Super Carrier "Hillary Clinton" being named after what Birmingham calls "The fiercest and most uncompromising Commander in Chief ever" (paraphrase) should have warned me about the message the author intended to send.

By: John Wilker

John Wilker — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:43:07 +0000

Yeah I suspect it's too new (to which I can cut some slack, LOL) I'm sure eBook features aren't commonly covered in standard boilerplate contracts (yet, i hope).

I really hope it becomes something the author has complete say in. I think it's really their call.

By: Keith Peters

Keith Peters — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:27:17 +0000

To be honest, I know that some of my books are on Kindle, but really have no idea whether or not text to speech is enabled or not. I guess I should check it out. But really, it's not the kind of think you even think about as an author until it gets brought up.

By: John Wilker

John Wilker — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:21:36 +0000

It's great that you've responded, that's awesome and a genuinely cool thing to do. While I never figured you were sitting in a dark room, laughing maniacally hitting a "Kill speech to text" button, I do think authors should exhibit some control over their work. Maybe it's new and needs to be added to boiler plate, but standing back and taking a "Not my call" stance is uncool IMO. It's your work, at the end of the day it's your name (above|below|next to) the title and on the spine, stepping back once you've typed the last "." and letting others control your work is weak.

So yeah, Poo Poo on Del Rey if it was their call (I don't disagree that it probably was) but sorry, poo poo on you for not being more involved.

By: John Birmingham

John Birmingham — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:36:27 +0000

John, I can understood you’re pissed off. But I don’t make these decisions. I didn’t even know DT was available on Kindle, or that you could listen to it. So while I’m sympathetic, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t go shitcanning me for marketing or technical snafus for which I am not responsible. It could be Del Rey. It could be Amazon. It could be a fault in your machine. An oversight in coding. There could be any number of reasons why you can’t listen to the fucking book. But it’s not me.

By: John Wilker

John Wilker — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:33:50 +0000

Yeah I was really hopeful they'd actually learn from past mistakes.

And yeah the text to speech is nice, but in now way comparable to an audio book. I can only take the read aloud for a little while, so many mispronunciations (at least in Sci-Fi and Fantasy for obvious reasons) that I can't imagine it being a threat to that section of business, and yeah sure some one will, people still sneak camcorders into movie theatres, LOL.