tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post7857021145509926093..comments2024-01-25T15:09:03.714-08:00Comments on Whiskey's Place: The New Mass Media: Ebooks and the End of the Brandon Tartikoff StrategyWhiskeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01854764809682029464noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-65077468704344572062009-11-29T18:08:01.339-08:002009-11-29T18:08:01.339-08:00All the effects you are describing from a perspect...All the effects you are describing from a perspective of knowledge about media, can be more accurately described (and future results predicted) if you look into Clayton Christensen's "The Innovator's Dilemma" or its follow up "The Innovator's solution". For a quick reference, check the wikipedia page.<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_technology<br /><br />This particular theory is so well made (and backed up by extensive research) that it can be used to both describe and predict outcomes on similar situations regardless of the specific industry. <br /><br />Applying the theory to newspapers:<br /><br />Disruptive technology: internet - (with no physical versions) news providers.<br /><br />- The new entrants initially either target new markets (people who weren't buying physical papers anyway) or the low-end of their core markets (basic news articles, but no editorials or proprietary articles, no editing or checking facts). New entrants are, by means of their disruptive technology (online only, fewer staff) lower cost. <br /><br />- Incumbents typically try to preserve their existing profit formula so they try to keep selling physical papers and adds. They lose a few marginal customers, but refuse to slash their margins to compete (initially).<br /><br />- Eventually the new entrants become more refined and start expanding more into the incumbents' markets. <br /><br />- The incumbents then either keep deciding to concentrate on the upper levels of profit and crowd each other out (same number of papers for fewer readers), or try to compete with the new entrants head on (providing free content). In both cases the incumbents see lower returns, either due to increased competition or lower prices (free content with some ads) vs. lower cost providers.<br /><br />End-game:<br /><br />- A few incumbents survive at the top (eg: Financial Times, The Economist, etc., charging for superb content that cannot be obtained from new entrants).<br />- All other incumbents (local papers first, some national papers later) suffer massive losses and consolidate at much lower valuations or go bust.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-90836441189626791302009-10-19T09:52:26.688-07:002009-10-19T09:52:26.688-07:00I never implied anything else.I never implied anything else.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-28466005310460462682009-10-19T08:22:33.955-07:002009-10-19T08:22:33.955-07:00stratomunchkin,
Any misconceptions about what is ...stratomunchkin,<br /><br />Any misconceptions about what is going on in the Baen system are mine, not Whiskey's. As Joh Ringo pointed out on your blog.Mil-Tech Bardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11654312581130984629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-80792095420980159722009-10-19T05:48:30.836-07:002009-10-19T05:48:30.836-07:00I don't think ebooks will destroy the actual m...I don't think ebooks will destroy the actual market for physical books. Even tech-affine people like myself prefer the real thing standing in the shelf instead of the, admittedly, handy alternative of the ebook. At best, ebooks will supplement the market and force the powers that be to adapt if they don't want to loose customers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-28965171962402263442009-10-19T04:26:56.665-07:002009-10-19T04:26:56.665-07:00I've been expecting ebooks to start making big...I've been expecting ebooks to start making big headway. I think the old publishing paradigm is going to die out soon, and good riddance!Welmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07651583663681832308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-35068889253921892762009-10-18T21:38:04.455-07:002009-10-18T21:38:04.455-07:00So what advice does John Ringo have on shopping a ...So what advice does John Ringo have on shopping a manuscript?Truth(er)noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-91704723877600448882009-10-18T12:41:40.325-07:002009-10-18T12:41:40.325-07:00Apparently John Ringo himself added this comment t...Apparently John Ringo himself added this comment to the respective post on my blog:<br /><br /><i>Some corrections and a bit of detail on Baen.<br /><br />Jim didn't see it on the Slushpile on Baen's Bar. I'd made a mention that I had something on the physical slushpile during a discussion and when they couldn't find the novel (because it had just been rejected) he asked to see it. I emailed him Hymn and Gust Front.<br /><br />While most of the above is accurate (and appears to be a quote from a discussion I was involved in) it should be noted Baen is run almost entirely by females. Toni Weisskopf is the publisher, Danielle Turner is the editor and Laura Haywood-Cory is the assistant editor and Primary Reader. (First reading is, indeed, done mostly by fans with a good track record.) The only male who works in the office is Hank Davis who mostly manages marketing. Jim Minz is the new managing editor, so that's two 'guys'. Even the office manager is female. And Orthodox Jewish.<br />:-)<br /><br />That does not invalidate the above. It's quite valid. Also, one of the reasons that books that have barely cracked the surface of the publishing industry get made into movies is that the publisher's first readers use back channels to similar persons in Hollywood to push new novels they like.<br /><br />Much of this comes from a discussion with another author who works in the 'normal' publishing industry. His editor (female) is honest in that she 'knows a good book for guys' when she absolutely hates it.<br /><br />My issue with that is that that makes her a filter not an editor. An editor should be able to correct a book for the target audience. ('I think you need more action here.') Any editor who can simply spot a 'good' book because they don't like it should get out of the business.<br /><br />John</i>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-75137525487796928122009-10-18T06:07:39.475-07:002009-10-18T06:07:39.475-07:00And no, I am not Lightning Count.And no, I am <i>not</i> Lightning Count.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-58785115372167079732009-10-18T06:06:43.011-07:002009-10-18T06:06:43.011-07:00That actually explains why a novel like "Twil...That actually explains why a novel like "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_%28novel%29" rel="nofollow">Twilight</a>" (and yes, I <i>have</i> read it) gets published, even though Stephenie Meyer's sole literary accomplishment (and that is no small feat, I recognize that) with that novel was <i>finishing</i> it. The story is bland, the characters are even blander, and in the light of the quote above it seems perfectly reasonable to assume that the only way this came to being published was that it appealed to the fantasy of one of those female first readers. Now arguably, "Twilight" is an example for that fact that feminism only runs skin-deep (all those "independent" and "self-reliant" modern <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2008/nov/06/twilight-film-demographic" rel="nofollow">teens and tweens</a> craving the idea of being the wife of the beautiful and immortal vampire and the byzantine machinations of the Vampire society instead of <i>true</i> equality in life and workplace) and that you can make shit to gold. It has spawned a multi-million dollar franchise, but is a perfect example for the point above, for it has spawned a whole subgenre (even though that had been alive before with the "Anita Blake" novels and Anne Rice's vampire books) that basically is written by women for women while other demographic groups (read: men and boys) of course are treated with quite a bit less enthusiasm.<br /><br />If women control the entry positions in the publishing industry through which the works of most aspiring writers most go (and the western world's reservoir of talented, industrious amateur writers is nearly infinite) it is no wonder that entrepreneurial souls like the late Mr. Baen pretty much single-handedly take over whole sectors of fiction. Pretty much all the military and adventure-orientated science fiction and fantasy runs through Baen Books, be that juggernaut David Weber with his best-selling "Honor Harrington" saga and his other assorted works, or Eric Flint's ongoing "1632" series, or William R. Forstchen's or John Ringo's books. These works all appeal to a broad male audience with sales in the millions of copies, yet major publishing houses seem unable to generate or process comparable works of their own - and now we know why.<br /><br />It is largely unlikely that a young, female first reader enthralled by the idea of the glamour of New York and of publishing will see the value in a script about a rural Virginia community transplanted into the Thirty Years War in Germany, for even though there are strong female characters in it, most of the plot is naturally driven by men (hardly avoidable in Renaissance Europe) and deals with war and conflict, both physical and in the way of a profound culture shock. So you have time travel, you have rural values and hardiness, and you have war and conflict, none of which are themes the average tween girl will embrace or recommend or even have a cursory interest in.<br /><br />Likewise, it is just as unlikely that the same first reader would consider the value of, say, <a href="http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=141518" rel="nofollow">Amethyst</a> (starts with post #23), which deals with a complex political background, corporate intrigue and a rather hard sci-fi tech setting and is set in our solar system, featuring an impeding showdown between the USA and China. "Amethyst" is only one of many excellent stories that author, going by the nickname of <i>Lightning Count</i>, most of them of a far higher quality and complexity than "Twilight" could ever hope to achieve (see, for example <a href="http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=131847" rel="nofollow">The Last Star</a>). Still, it is people like him, men like him, that will most likely never get published, and we as the audience will be all the poorer because of that, for there will be nobody except the guys at Baen Books to jump into the gap.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-76528994803864743812009-10-17T13:12:44.163-07:002009-10-17T13:12:44.163-07:00The BNP are an interesting phenomena. There was th...The BNP are an interesting phenomena. There was the scandal of the British National Ballet Company ballerina who was revealed to be a member (when a journalist illegally obtained their membership list). The woman in question lived with and had a child with a Cuban-Chinese man. They exist mainly as an expression of the failure of mainstream parties to address immigration. <br /><br />I've written about their emphasis to women, directly, that immigration leads to their losses in National Health. The Party is explicitly nationalist, and also socialist. Their argument is that the National Health Service cannot be anything other than the miserable failure it is with immigration at anything other than minor levels. <br /><br />As a practical matter, most European nations will have to either surrender to various forces, Muslims in the Mediterranean, Russians to the East, with the withdrawal of the US defence umbrella or choose to fight. Conflict does not just go away because "human nature has evolved" or some such.<br /><br />Historically Europeans have voted for parties that are both nationalist and socialist, which characterizes much of Swedish and Norwegian politics of the post-War period besides the NSDAP. Socialism generally tends to run out of other people's money sooner or later. <br />--------------------------<br />As for ebooks, it is true that they are now fairly rampant with "porn for women" aka romance novels and such. This is expected, porn is usually the first to take advantage of new technology, and women's fan/slash-fiction has a larger amateur writing base. <br /><br />BUT ... democraticization of technology means anyone can play, and low price points mean that big winners are those that appeal to everyone. Romance novels aka porn for women having about zero appeal to men.Whiskeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01854764809682029464noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-12943699597052503782009-10-17T09:02:07.614-07:002009-10-17T09:02:07.614-07:00Rookh Kshatriya,
The BNP do not support a neocon ...Rookh Kshatriya,<br /><br />The BNP do not support a neocon foreign policy. For that reason alone I suspect Whiskey would consider them the enemy.<br /><br />As for ebooks I just went to the <a href="http://www.ereader.com/" rel="nofollow">Ereader website</a> and almost everything there is for women. Check out their bestsellers at the bottom. Lots of women's porno (ie romance novels).Matranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-71535610414325684522009-10-17T06:26:59.317-07:002009-10-17T06:26:59.317-07:00As far as ebooks are concerned, before bying an er...As far as ebooks are concerned, before bying an ereader, please consider that paper books are more sustainable and better for the environment:<br /><br />http://selfdestructivebastards.blogspot.com/2009/10/ebooks-versus-paper.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-77748045689918217242009-10-17T05:52:51.922-07:002009-10-17T05:52:51.922-07:00I would be interested to know what you think of th...I would be interested to know what you think of the British BNP. They are a populist political party who are overtly racist and wish to repatriate immigrants and restore capital punishment. Prior to the Internet they were a non-event, but now they are winning elections at a European and local government level. Their website gets more hits than any other political party and they use the Internet to obviate the veto against them in the mainstream media. A lot of this echoes what you write, albeit in the political, not entertainment sphere. In short, mass opinion looks set to make a big come-back in the Twenty-first Century.Rookh Kshatriyahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05970184074924214959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-76331438408745139192009-10-16T20:01:25.248-07:002009-10-16T20:01:25.248-07:00Another example: podiobooks.com, where authors can...Another example: podiobooks.com, where authors can post free audio books of their work. Eventually there will be a big breakout of some author who started out from one of these e-publishing venues.Jeff Burtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18068021849429001560noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-35138173372823863592009-10-16T19:34:04.987-07:002009-10-16T19:34:04.987-07:00But if you're patient and frequent second hand...But if you're patient and frequent second hand book stores, you pay much less than $10.<br /><br />I read 3-5 books a week, and I'm very patient.Mike43noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893665144141962944.post-64853883866288015212009-10-16T17:51:57.344-07:002009-10-16T17:51:57.344-07:00You mean no more autumn pool gorgons? Sad.
http:/...You mean no more autumn pool gorgons? Sad.<br /><br />http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200107/myersRosenoreply@blogger.com