Books Read in 2009

[rolanni]

Cape Storm, Rachel Caine
Rosemary and Rue, Seanan McGuire
The Beekeeper's Apprentice, Laurie R. King
Larklight, Philip Reeve (decorated throughout by David Wyatt)
Sabriel, Garth Nix
New Amsterdam, Elizabeth Bear
The Mirror Prince, Violette Malan
Narbonic Six, Shaenon K. Garrity
Conspirator, C.J. Cherryh
Thirteenth Child, Patricia C. Wrede
Nine Years Among the Indians, Herman Lehmann, J. Marvin Hunter, and Dale F. Giese
The True Meaning of Smekday, Adam Rex
Edison's Eve:  A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life, Gaby Wood
Undone, Rachel Caine
From Dead to Worse, Charlaine Harris
Shambling Towards Hiroshima, James Morrow
Codespell, Kelly McCullough
Cybermancy, Kelly McCullough
Carousel Tides, Sharon Lee (manuscript)
Fine Prey, Scott Westerfield  (re-read)
Web Mage, Kelly McCullough
Uhura's Song, Janet Kagan

Comments

Hardcover or paperback?

[(Anonymous)]

The personal book collection is over 2000 volumes and the spousal unit suggests I cut back a bit. If I have a choice between hardcover and paperback (I get one of each when possible) which one is more beneficial for you (monetarily)? Should those of us who want to support authors avoid Kindle and opt for dead tree?

Re: Hardcover or paperback?

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

...we get royalties on all new books sold. Something like eight percent (of cover) for paperbacks, ten percent for hardcovers. We also receive royalties on electronic editions sold through Webscriptions (http://www.webscription.net/) (you can download Webscription ebooks and read them on your Kindle; there are instructions on the site, and AFAIK Baen doesn't take back the books it sells you.). The royalties for ebooks is in the range of twenty percent, at the moment.

So I guess my bottom line is -- buy our books, in the format that pleases you (and the spouse, of course), and enjoy them, please.

Re: Hardcover or paperback?

[(Anonymous)]

Glad to hear your royalties from Baen are excellent for the webscription ones. I'd not have a complete set of the Lee & Miller works in the Liaden Universe to the present time otherwise. And I have thoroughly enjoyed the insight into the writing process all the way from Fledgling's first chapter posted on your website to the present. Thank you.

dead tree vs kindle

[(Anonymous)]

When you buy a dead tree book in hard or paperback, it's yours and no one can take it away but you can give or loan it to selected others or to a library where many others can benefit. When you get a book for your kindle, you don't own it and _they_ can (and occasionally do) take it back!

Never, EVER, lease a book or DVD that someone else retains total control over! That's a slippery slope to censorship of the worst kind.

My halfpenny's worth....

Re: dead tree vs kindle

[amm-me.livejournal.com]

This does not mean all e-books are like that. If you download a book to your computer and then place it on a non-networked reader (such as my Cybook) it is just as much yours as a paper book. Harder to lend out, granted.

It is becoming very much easier for me to read on the tiny, light reader rather than from big, heavy, pointy-cornered hardbacks. So I really like that feature, which was not even on my mind when I bought the reader.

Speaking of author's share, have you seen what C.J. Cherryh, Jane Fancher, and Lynn Abbey are up to with Closed Circle? They all have backlist which is not very available in the current publishing environment, and they are launching their own personal e-publishing venture. I gather the learning curve has been fairly substantial, but it seems close to launch. 100% of the profits will be theirs. And the covers! Imagine covers done by the author or her good friend (Fancher was originally an artist before she started writing) who has actually READ THE BOOK. What a concept.

Abigail

[(Anonymous)]

I know that not all ebooks are like that, Abigail, because it would depend on the source from which one got the ebook.

I'll never buy one from amazon.com: new or used books in hard or paperback? O yes, indeedy. Ebooks for Kindle from amazon? No danged way. Blue-Ray DVDs from anywhere? Nope.

I think the practices instigated by Baen Books is the wave of the future and all those control freaks who're so worried about "lost sales" will one day learn that they lost the game when they went in for "more control" instead of realizing that word of mouth is the best advertizing ever because it costs them so little. Bean gives it's authors the best possible word of mouth advertizing and it's readers a chance to find out if they like a particular author's writing style via free downloads of selected chapters of many of it's new books as well as complete books from some authors. Which is one reason my house has stacks and stacks of dead tree books in every room and closet!