Author: Deano

Every book ever written by Neal Stephenson (Author), the majority of which were not "must reads" when I read them, but seem to have become so since, given the pace of technological and economic development the world over.

Seriously, people often ask me why I liked one of his books, and when I inquire how far they got, it's usually "a couple chapters" or "50-60 pages". I've found that for the vast majority of his works, one must read around 150-200 pages to become "hooked" enough to barrel through the rest (often at great detriment to sleep and dietary habits). But it does seem to happen quite reliably every time.

Which "must read" books are difficult to finish or "get into"?

• Author's Desire, at least in some genres. They have heard horror stories of the lower royalties (based on pre-Internet book contracts) for the format, "rampant" piracy losses, and of course some writers simply still don't "get" e-publishing, or otherwise associate as low class/amateurish compared to publishing a real physical object. Of course, this also works both ways – I've heard of a big name fiction author suddenly jumping on the bandwagon when she noticed a hated peer's latest release while sitting across the aisle from a Kindle-reader in some first class cabin somewhere.
• Publisher's Capacity. Not every print publisher today can support conversion to the wide variety of e-publishing formats, nor are they all aware of third-party solutions like Dan Pacheco's BookBrewer.com. Admittedly, most of these solutions (including Dan's) are more focused on targeting authors directly, though there's a lot of applicability for really small independent presses, as well.
• Publisher's Desire. Given a solidly established brick and mortar distribution channel, most publishers really didn't understand the true advantages of digital books until very recently. Big setbacks like the Borders implosion, as well as much harsher terms from big box stores like Wal*Mart and Costco have significantly changed this outlook, however, so I think we are seeing a pretty large uptick in availability across the board for new titles. The biggest laggard in my opinion are non-bestselling back catalog books, which have the most to gain from being perpetually "in stock" online… But from a publisher's perspective I understand why focusing investment on the biggest near-term wins makes the most sense on paper.
• Existing Book Contracts. Any print books published in at least the last 50 years or so usually include various types of ancillary rights clauses, for things like radio, tv, and movie rights, and more recently audiobooks[*]. As time has moved on, and lawyers have gotten progressively more evil, these clauses tended to get so broad and vague that any new technology/format – including Ebooks – usually sits under the control of the publisher for the term of the contract, or until certain conditions are met. This usually also means that e-publishing rights and royalties would need to be separately renegotiated (some big authors), or simply at the whim of the publisher (most everyone else), with the author usually receiving a much smaller cut of each sale, on what in theory is a much higher margin product.

[* Audiobooks are especially interesting to me, in that they suffer the contract and licensing restrictions of (a) books, (b) the recording industry, and (with the introduction of services like Audible.com) (c) digital distribution. How Audible, especially, ever got off the ground must've involved a huge team of lawyers, a vast portfolio of compromising hidden-camera photos, or both. ]

What factors determine whether a book is published electronically as well as traditionally?

Piracy shouldn't be stopped, not ever. Piracy is the "edge beyond the bleed", and much like the more legit porn business, innovates and adapts new technologies much faster than the rest of the entertainment industry otherwise would.

For 8 years, I worked at the largest publisher of Japanese Manga in the US, VIZ Media. Given the enormous costs of licensing, translating, editing, laying out, and selling/distributing a title, illegal "fan scanslations" of original Japanese works were often the most accurate indicator of commercial success in the retail market. Even today, VIZ and their competitors have a two-headed approach: pursuing the shutdown of pirate sites, while also comprehensively studying the most popular titles on such sites to gauge consumer interest… Of course, they'll never admit that, but let's just say they could be pursuing the pirates a lot harder than they have been to date, and leave it at that.

Far from taking sales away, these pirate-fans basically did test marketing for free, in ways that would never have been approved by VIZ's parent companies and licensors in Japan. Not only did they indicate what titles they wanted to see in translation, but they also made it painfully clear that waiting 3-4 years between a title's Japanese and US debuts was intolerable… And even that waiting 6-12 months between volume releases was just leaving money on the table.

Recently, I read[*] that DC comics will be doing day and date releases of digital comics alongside printed monthlies for many titles. In the future, it's even likely that we'll see titles being released "digital first", or perhaps using a Kickstarter-like pre-pay model, with print runs being a follow-on only for proven titles – sort of like the comic book version of the "Daily Syndication Hurdle" for TV shows[“]. If such a day comes, it wouldn't really be a manga/comic book industry innovation, but merely a complete modeling of the successful pirate scanslation model into the legit marketplace.

Now, are the fans who read the comics online, and never buy the books (or T-shirts, or movie tickets, or DVDs) doing something wrong? Absolutely! But those folks make up a tiny minority, and even if they're just spreading interest among their friends, that can have a huge beneficial effect, especially since not all of a pirate's friends are going to be pirates. Not convinced? Read this spot-on analysis of the launch of both the rebooted Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who TV series: http://www.mindjack.com/feature/….

To a far lesser extent (unfortunately), Internet piracy has helped to surface some amazing foreign films, like the epic Bollywood SciFi movie Enthiran, which is the single most mind-blowing film I have watched in the last 10 years[†]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q…

Anyway, long story short, I think your basic premise is correct: the best way to "fight piracy" is to co-opt and incorporate the advantages and benefits piracy gives to the end-user within the legitimate distribution channel. Then, the pirates will move on to the "next thing", and help drag us forward to whatever that is. 🙂

[* Credit to Mark Hughes for his post: DC Comics is Rebooting Everything and Going Digital ]

[“ 88-100 shows in the can, according to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bro… ]

[† Update, 7/17/2011: I recently saw "The Cannonball Run I + II" for the first time in my adult life, and I have to say the sheer volume of drunk and coked-out stars on screen was epic at a level that no amount of spirited CGI effects work could possibly compete against. ]

How should piracy be stopped?

In simplest terms, "because that's how the contracts were written before the Internet".

The creators and publishers/distributors of the established industry have historically made greater revenues when they were able to re-sell the rights to their work to multiple territories.

In part, this has even been a good thing at times – once you have a licensee with "feet on the ground" in a given country, you immediately have someone with a financial interest in stamping out piracy of the licensed work.

Similarly, having a company that understands book distribution infrastructure, or television broadcast restrictions in say Chile, can be immensely helpful to a publisher/TV studio in Spain – despite the fact that they share a language (more or less).

Of course, when it comes to, say, English-language products, it's an incredible frustration at times to be an Australian or British citizen waiting for the release of an eBook, album, movie, or TV show from the US.

And lest we forget, there are a lot of countries and languages out there, and even the most popular books and movies never get a proper localized edition… Which again is frustrating for the locals – who may well be fluent in a licensed edition's language, but simply unable to legally obtain their own copy.

It's not an easy system, but it has more or less worked for a very long time, which in turn has created (accreted?) a lot of established players who would faced reduced revenues or even extinction if more "internet-friendly" terms were quickly and universally adopted.

It seems almost inevitable that things will change once digital distribution overtakes physical product sales worldwide – master licensors will have fewer reasons to cut in the locals based solely on geography, and instead opt for a "world-wide per-language" license model, or something similar. Unfortunately, waiting for this to happen is a bit like waiting for cheap efficient solar power – always just over the next hill, always 3 years away.

What is the reason books publishers and music companies place geographical restriction to selling their electronic versions of books and musics?

A quick note to those a little earlier on in the process: try to come up with 3-4 potential plans before lining up the date… In fact, try to just have 3-4 fun things planned each week, and invite your date along as a first date. Knowing that you were going to do whatever it is anyway might make it seem less special, but especially at the outset of dating women like to feel less preyed upon, and showing enough interest to invite her along like this shows her you're willing to "let her into your world"… And if your world happens to be fun and exciting, she's more likely to want to return later. 😉

That said, a few real basics to get you started:

The Beach Chalet at Ocean Beach is pretty nice for a meal/beer/sunset. A bit cold and breezy, though, so bring a warm coat (to wrap her in?).

A drink after work on the comfy couches of The Press Club just off Market St is a little cozier, and not cheap, per se, but definitely bang for buck a great investment.
Apps and cocktails at the bar at Ozumo on the Embarcadero is, again, not the cheapest, but totally reasonable. Nice if she likes sushi…

Happy Hour at Butter is a little wild perhaps, but the just plain absurdity of the place is fun, and it's loud enough that if you're not a good talker you'll have good excuses to keep it to a minimum.

Me? I like bumming around North Beach at random. It's right on the edge of Chinatown, lots of bars and bookstores, a restaurant for every palate, and yes, even strip clubs. Best grubby pizza is at Golden Boy, and once you're through the line, you can cram up to a bar and eat/talk to your hearts' content. Nice wine bar just across the street…

I could keep going on, but it would help to know a bit more about what you had in mind, and some background… Otherwise you'll just get random opinions. Does she know it's a date? Being Chinese is so irrelevant I won't address it…

Overall, just keep the date fun, and low pressure. Let the atmosphere or activity be your guide, and just enjoy whatever happens. The very worry that you don't want to mess up is often the surest way to make sure you do. 😉

So, where can a lover on a budget take a girl on a first date in San Francisco without needing a government bailout afterward?