Konrath challenges the Authors Guild

[fjtorres]

It starts out as a snarky fisking of the AG's position on the Google scan verdict:

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2015/1...ors-guild.html

...but it gets serious and sensible:

Amazon, ebooks, and piracy are here to stay. No law can ever work if it goes against what people are going to do anyway. The spread of digital media must force us to study how it is being used, so we can benefit from it. It isn't something you can control. It's something you observe. Prohibition didn't work for alcohol, or the war on drugs. Net neutrality will remain, and piracy will always be a part of it. Treat Google as a partner, rather than as an adversary. The same with Amazon. Treat the Big 5 as adversaries, until they reform their contracts. Use the media to push a positive agenda. Hire Data Guy at AuthorEarnings.com to teach you how to conduct your own studies or the marketplace. Abandon the status quo, drop your preconceptions, and start fresh, figuring out how all of your poverty-level members could have a shot at making a living.

If I were in charge, it would take me a week to put the Authors Guild on the right track.

My first job would be to give the current Board of Directors new responsibilities, the sum total of which would be a daily meeting at Dennys spent brainstorming, and the notes generated will serve as an example of what not to do.

Then I'm bringing in a bunch of young, smart writers to get shit done. Such as:

• An advertising partnership with Amazon to feature AG members' titles.
• An advertising partnership with Facebook to feature AG members' titles.
• An advertising partnership with Google to feature AG members' titles.
• Letters to the Big 5 demanding better contract terms, and a media campaign held in the court of public opinion exposing the unconscionability of publishing contracts. If it leads to litigation, all the better.
• Letters to the Big 5 to demand lower ebook prices, for both retailers and libraries.
• Petitioning Congress to reform copyright law.
• Health care.
• Conducting actual studies on piracy.
• Fighting SOPA and other threats to free speech and net neutrality.
• Striking if needed.

The Authors Guild isn't beneficial. It isn't neutral. It's harmful. Every time Robinson or Ravensberger whines in the media, they spout nonsense that less-informed readers and writers accept as truths.

More at the source.
(And the mockery is good, too.)

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

It starts out as a snarky fisking of the AG's position on the Google scan verdict:

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2015/1...ors-guild.html

...but it gets serious and sensible:



More at the source.
(And the mockery is good, too.)

I see, so his personal preconceptions and prejudices are good and other people view points are to be mocked. Gee, that's going to move the conversation along and convince people.

[Cinisajoy]

Konrath is always fantastic.
Even if he gives me nightmares.

Pwalker did you actually read the blog?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Konrath is always fantastic.
Even if he gives me nightmares.

He makes good points: why waste time, effort, and money fighting people trying to make you money?

If they don't respond to common sense, even in the legal system, maybe they can be shamed by mockery. It's not as if the courts are ruling on stickies; they are producing detailed point-by-point rulings citing chapter and verse of applicable law and precedent.

[Phogg]

Mockery is not automatically a bad thing.
Sometimes it is a warning that you are doing something wrong.
Like pain.

[Barty]

I'm not sure what he means by net neutrality is here to stay. At least in the US, it is controversial and will be challenged and possibly reversed.

(Also why does the AG care about net neutrality?)

[conan50]

He's funny, and probably right.
Greed and power has corrupted and encouraged bad judgment within the traditional publishing industry. Brands became more important than writing good books. Protecting the status quo rather than taking a chance on new authors and new ways of doing things. Now they are dying by the death of a thousand cuts, and it is hard to feel sorry for them.
Libraries are the only heroes I see regarding books right now, and publishers are bleeding libraries dry. Like I said, hard to feel sorry for traditional publishers or the AG.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Barty

I'm not sure what he means by net neutrality is here to stay. At least in the US, it is controversial and will be challenged and possibly reversed.

(Also why does the AG care about net neutrality?)

For the same reason the MPAA cares about (destroying) Net Neutrality.

https://www.techdirt.com/blog/netneu...ck-sites.shtml

http://guardianlv.com/2014/01/net-ne...ng-and-piracy/
http://www.songwritersguild.com/net_neutrality.htm

[eschwartz]

"Actual studies in piracy"...

Didn't Neil Gaiman already do something like that?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

"Actual studies in piracy"...

Didn't Neil Gaiman already do something like that?

Sort of.
(His publisher was upset his book was being pirated. He shrugged it off and sales improved afterwards.)

Eric Flint long documented the effects of putting ebooks in the BAEN Free Library's. (More sales.)

Visibility is valuable and it can come from the least expected places.

[eschwartz]

I was afraid someone might claim the Baen Free Library isn't "piracy" and therefore "doesn't count".

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I was afraid someone might claim the Baen Free Library isn't "piracy" and therefore "doesn't count".

Check the comments at the source (if you haven't already) for an anecdote about an author who found his book pirated and being discussed on a pirate venue. Punchline: he didn't have the heart to tell them the book was permafree.

[eschwartz]

I did notice that.

The comparison to the Baen Free Library I didn't spot though.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Mockery is not automatically a bad thing.
Sometimes it is a warning that you are doing something wrong.
Like pain.

Usually mockery is an indication that you don't have a valid argument, so you resort to mockery rather than actually address the issues.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Konrath is always fantastic.
Even if he gives me nightmares.

Pwalker did you actually read the blog?

Yes I did. Snarking about something only impresses those who already agree with you and causes everyone else to dismiss you. If he's trying to convince the Author's Guild of something, he sure isn't going to succeed. All he's doing is shouting in his echo chamber.