Word

Yup, Apple lost its e-book price-fixing case, big time.

Let's quote the judge!

“This trial has not been the occasion to decide whether Amazon’s choice to sell NYT Bestsellers or other New Releases as loss leaders was an unfair trade practice or in any other way a violation of law,” the judge wrote. “If it was, however, the remedy for illegal conduct is a complaint lodged with the proper law enforcement offices or a civil suit or both. Another company’s alleged violation of antitrust laws is not an excuse for engaging in your own violations of law.”

What was that?

“This trial has not been the occasion to decide whether Amazon’s choice to sell NYT Bestsellers or other New Releases as loss leaders was an unfair trade practice or in any other way a violation of law,” the judge wrote. “If it was, however, the remedy for illegal conduct is a complaint lodged with the proper law enforcement offices or a civil suit or both. Another company’s alleged violation of antitrust laws is not an excuse for engaging in your own violations of law.”

Huh?

"Another company’s alleged violation of antitrust laws is not an excuse for engaging in your own violations of law."

Wow! That's a concept that is...entirely familiar to me, but apparently quite novel to some.

On minions, piñatas, and open wallets

Someone got very excited about one of the new Jay-Z songs, so I was going to give the album a listen, but it turns out that it's only released to Certain People, and I am not one of The Chosen.

I realize that was supposed to make me all excited about this album (OMFG! IT'S SO EXCLUUUUSIVE!!!! OMG! OMG! I HAVE NO SELF-ESTEEM! OMFG!), but frankly, it just annoyed me. I feel like Jay-Z's output is completely uneven these days, and this whole thing just underscores the impression I have that he's really kind of lost interest in music. I mean, if he's getting paid by corporate deals in advance of actual album sales, and money is all that matters, well, why should he break a sweat and make good songs? He gets paid the same for crap, and making crap's a whole lot easier.

And it turns out things aren't working out so well for The Chosen, either. The app is buggy and annoying, and it's asking for personal information, which people resent. Quoth that article:

As apps gain popularity, musicians and companies are feeling their way through the new rules of digital etiquette. Michael Schneider, co-founder and chief executive of Mobile Roadie, a popular supplier of music apps, says that requiring users to share their app activity on social media is especially problematic.

"Top of the list is don't force people to log in. I think that's wrong and it turns fans off," he said. 

I would say it turns fans off, plus it turns off would-be fans who resent being treated like big, open wallets that some wealthy entertainer feels entitled to vacuum out at their whim. I don't much care for the music of Barbra Streisand or Justin Beiber, but I actively despise the way they treat their fans--it's money-grubbing manipulation worthy of any cult leader. I don't love Kid Rock's music, either, but I don't avoid his output at all costs because I can't stand the very idea of him, you know?

Obviously, I'm all for artists being able to make a living. But I think there's always a temptation (for authors as well as musicians) to treat fans like little minions who shall do your bidding, or like piñatas that you whack with a stick whenever you want some more money. And when you do that, and you discover that you have fewer fans than you did before, you can even delude yourself into thinking is a good thing, because those are your true fans. But in reality, what you are doing is 1. developing a personality disorder, and 2. finding people whose personality disorders further enable your own. Read Mommie Dearest if you want to know where that's going to take you....

Progress report

OK, I've been fooling around more with GIMP, and here's more or less what the front cover of Trang is going to look like now:

The text has an embossed look, thanks to GIMP's bevel tool--what I like about that is that it helps the text stand out from the background art. That allows me a freer hand with where I place things--before I had to be really careful because the text would just vanish into the artwork. The downside is that the Copperplate Gothic I was using before just doesn't bevel well, so it's gone.

Also you'll notice that my name is a lot larger now. Some would argue that my name should be larger than the book's title, but my title has five letters and my name has ten, so that's not going to happen with my limited design skills. But now you can read my name in the thumbnail, which is an improvement.

Know your freaky sub-genre

This is an (awesome) article in the Wall Street Journal on what is called hick-hop, which blends hip-hop with country music and delights me to no end. (Some of it's straight-up novelty rap--coughcough"Rodeo"coughcough--but some of it's true fusion, which is always cool in my book.)

What's interesting about it from a business perspective is how they've figured out how to sell it. They're using services like Pandora to literally map places where people like hick-hop, and then they're holding concerts and selling CDs there.

Selling CDs? Yeah, well, it turns out that country-music fans still buy CDs (you know, because CDs are so homey and traditional), so Wal-Mart was willing to try carrying hick-hop, and by George, it worked!

It's fascinating to me because not only does it once again prove that people don't just want to eat Big Macs no matter what the "experts" think, but it also shows the fallacy of one-size-fits-all marketing strategies: If you look at the music industry as a whole, CDs are a dead end, but if you look at the country-music industry, CDs are doing great. The more you know about your particular audience, the better off you're going to be. And if you don't know that much (perhaps because it's such a new genre), try to find out what fans of similar genres do and see if yours do the same.

Progress report

Oh, yes, despite it all, I did make progress today--I recreated the cover for Trang in GIMP, minus the text (since the new title is going to take some tweaking). I feel much more comfortable working in GIMP now, I have to say. It's not the most intuitive thing, but it's very robust, and if you do it right you have a lot of flexibility.

I have been in a position all too frequently lately where I have to wait on someone else to do X before Y can happen. So I am going to remind myself that one of the main benefits of working for yourself is that you don't have to do that. Which is good, because I HATE IT.

P.S. I also recreated the Trust cover, minus the text.

I just want to kill them all and let God sort it out

No, the new domain name hasn't gone through yet, even though I was PROMISED last time that it would go through by now. Yes, I had to call again, even though I was PROMISED last time that that would be my last phone call. We're at the juvenile finger-pointing stage, which is always extra-delightful with tech people because they do it by throwing around a lot of nonsensical jargon, which all basically translates as "It's not my fault! Those other people are crazy, and it's their fault! Boo-hoo!"

Here's how it's going to work: If I don't have a useable domain name by the end of next week, I'll switch registrars.

F B&N

So, I got an e-mail from Barnes & Noble that was all, "OMG!! You have to switch your books from Pubit to Nook Press!"

Now, I have had a problem with this ever since the whole Nook Press nonsense started: Why do I have to do anything? WHY? If Barnes & Noble feels compelled to change the name of their self-publishing program or add new features to it, why are they making that my problem? Why am I being asked to lift a finger, when anyone who has ever had any experience with business or economics will tell you that if you ask people to bestir themselves to make something happen, a sizable hunk of them just won't bother.

If you want people to do something, you ask them to opt out. If you don't want them to do something, you ask them to opt in. Barnes & Noble is asking me to opt in to Nook Press. Ergo....

But anyway, in the interest of at least appearing to be remotely engaged, I attempted to switch from Pubit to Nook Press.

And it won't take my password.

It says you can use your Pubit user name and password for Nook Press. I can log into Pubit just fine. But even being logged into Pubit, I can't log into Nook Press.

No, of course you can't move things into Nook Press from Pubit. Why would they make it so you can do that?

You know, if you haven't gathered, I haven't been having the easiest time these days. I've been distracted and upset and emotional, and I am just too fucking drained to deal with Barnes & Noble's dumb-ass bullshit this time around. I barely sell anything there anyway. I would feel more motivated if I thought there was a better chance that they might continue as a going concern, but I don't.

I may change my mind in six month's time, but for now--oh, look! It was so much easier to just delete my links to B&N and suspend the ads. Whodathunkit? 

Where are our robot overlords?

You know, getting this domain name set up was really a snap--no one owned MarySisson.com, and setting it up was a breeze. (Yeah, I didn't map it onto the Web site properly for a really long time, but that was my fault.)

Getting BlockB.com set up--oy. I had to buy the domain name, which is a few extra steps in the process, but the main issue is that in order to actually complete each extra step, I have had to call and follow up (sometimes more than once) with the two tech companies involved. All these steps are supposed to be automated, except that they're not, so you fill out on-line form #4,587,536, click "Submit," and then . . . nothing happens. Until you call. And call again.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised at this point, but I'm always struck by the irony of how completely technology firms are dependent upon actual human beings doing things like checking their e-mail in-boxes. The reliance on human beings wouldn't be so bad if it weren't apparently illegal for technology firms to hire more than one customer-service representative who actually knows what they're doing. You get the Lone Magical Dude, you're in luck. You get the Massively Stoned and Confused Dude, you gotta keep calling.

Linky links

This has been all over the place, but hey, read the Wall Street Journal's coverage: Barnes & Noble is spiraling down. The future does not look bright. I'll just reiterate that if you start having problems with B&N not paying you, don't be quiet about it--let other writers know.

This is a post about NBA draft picks that underscores the perils of managing a one-time big payday. The majority of professional basketball players file for bankruptcy within a few years of retirement. It's just human nature to not deal very well with windfalls--it takes serious planning. And honestly, nothing says "Thank you" to Mom and Dad like not having to file for bankruptcy!

Fonts, fonts, fonts

Since I'm a little better with GIMP now, I thought I'd work on making the cover font a little fancier.

My first thought was, Hey, why don't I go buy a nice, fancy cover font! So I went a-hunting, and I found a ton of very nice, science-fictional fonts.

Aaaannnddd...I decided not to use them. Not that they aren't really quite lovely, but the thing is, the Trang series is a very specific kind of science fiction, and I've run into trouble before confusing people's expectations. So if a really cool font makes it look like military sci-fi or high-tech sci-fi, well, I've been down that road before....

So I think I'll stay with the vaguely Star Trek-looking font, since that seems to work (and I really don't want to go with the many "I totally ripped this off of Star Trek!" fonts out there--it's just tacky). I'll just fancy up the letters a bit.

My random other project

So, I got really annoyed at what happened to Block B, and then my Browncoat instincts kicked in, and--well, now I've built a Web site that is going to be BlockB.com as soon as the domain transfer is finalized and I get the domain name mapped onto there.

Hey, I now am much better with GIMP!

Anyway, if you don't mind running over there and clicking links, checking for typos, etc., I'd appreciate that. Also if there's stuff, like Korean cultural references, that maybe needs some more background to be accessible, let me know.

Progress report

Oh, don't get excited--this was such a laughably tiny amount of progress that I wouldn't even be bothering to report it were it not my first progress in a really long time: I did an itty-bitty amount of noise removal on the first half of Chapter 8 of the Trang audiobook. I called it quits, though, because it's noise removal, and I've had enough tedious chores today already.

Bad vs. legally actionable

So, it's not like I'm trying to turn this into a K-pop blog or anything, but Block B recently had its lawsuit against its label dismissed. The case reminded me a lot of the failed class-action lawsuit against Harlequin in that the company being sued was engaged in behavior that clearly was very bad, but that, for various reasons, was not considered by the courts to actually be lawsuit-worthy.

In Block B's case, the label:

1. Did not pay members until the members started to sue.

2. Owes the members a substantial amount of money (roughly $400,000).

3. Hired as CEO a man who stole money from the member's families and then committed suicide.

Not shockingly, the members of the group feel that their label is Not A Good Label. (In fact, they are going indie now, which honestly I think is probably the best thing--in the Korean music industry the performers are typically just talking heads, so it's pretty standard for a band's legal relationship with their label to closely resemble that of a monkey to an organ grinder.)

But all that is pretty much irrelevant to the court. Why? Because the court is trying to determine if the label's actions are so bad that the contracts have been voided. And the court said no.

Why? Well, the court looked at the above points and said, Yeah, but once you did sue, the label paid you. And yeah, they still owe you money, but it sounds like they're planning on someday paying you that, too. Plus, there's no evidence that the label underpaid you because they were trying to rob you--it's more likely that they underpaid you because they're completely disorganized and keep craptacular records.

You might think that that sort of thing wouldn't happen here, but rest assured, it does: What a court considers Bad is often far below most people's Get Me the Hell Out threshold. It's kind of like the difference between someone being a bad driver and someone having their license revoked--there's a whole grey area in there where you don't let that person drive your kids around. And it's something to keep in mind before you go a-signing contracts with a publisher or other company that may or may not actually prove to be of service to you.