Wednesday, April 3, 2019

If You Love Books, Don't Set Them Free

Of course, change is inevitable. If you had told me ten years ago that I'd soon be able to buy and read any book on a handheld device that was thinner than a paperback, I probably would have believed you. And why not? Technology marches forward at a terrific pace. However, if you'd told me that people pay little to nothing for most of these books, I would've shaken my head. I certainly wouldn't have believed that authors and publishers would just give away their revenue. And yet, that's the way things are going. In a storefront packed with titles selling at just a few cents each, paying $2 or $3 for an eBook can seem quite a hefty price, especially when the public tell themselves it "costs nothing to produce".

I'll begin this post by making something clear. I'm not against eBooks, and I'm not opposed to digitalisation. If people want to read novels on Kindle over paper, that's fine with me, and if Kindles mean more people read often, that's great. It also just stands to reason that Kindle prices would be less than their paper counterparts.

So change was inevitable, and the advent of eBooks was of course going to have an impact on traditional pricing models ... but even so, how did we find ourselves dipping below the $1 mark? When did it become an acceptable practice for publishers to start giving away their product?

I don't write. I mean, professionally. I desire a future in development and computer programming, which is comparatively quite a young industry, but IT evolves a lot faster than books or music, quickly overtaking and absorbing more traditional medias. Driven by innovation, there's mountains of proof of the huge collateral damage that has happened to both people and businesses in this industry, and my only hope is that the book industry doesn't blindly follow in the same footsteps and imitate some of the dreadful mistakes that the IT industry has made along the way.

I can't help but consider the problem of "discovery".

It's true that digital publishing delivers more choice, but there's that "catch" ... that almost everything becomes harder to find. Fifteen years ago, publishers fought tooth and nail to ensure their physical products got onto physical shelves, where it, already, was tough to stand out. Among hundreds of other products. Now, in the eBook store, each product is surrounded by millions of others. The virtual shelves are infinite. They only extend to accommodate for the hundreds of hopeful new titles that are being added each day. See what I'm getting at, here?

Let's consider quality. In the old model, there were publishers and retailers, all to curate the contents of what comes in and out - but in these newer times, these old gatekeepers are gone, and in the era of self-publishing, a lot of shelf space is dedicated to mediocre content.

The above paragraph leads nicely into the question of price. What do you do to stand out? After all, your works are lost in a sea of content. You need a way to stand out. You know that online-store ratings and 'likes' can be rigged, and reviewers tend to focus on bigger titles from already-renowned writers. What do you do? It's obvious, isn't it? You lower your price.

This is where I become interested. The theory behind this is that while you may make less money on each individual sale, you'll break even (or even come out ahead!) because you'll sell more copies, right? This makes sense in theory ... if you're the only one doing it. If everyone does it, things become largely more complicated and ugly. A prime example of this happened in the app industry, when the Apple stores prices on apps immediately plummeted to 99c (the lowest price-point one could set at the time). In a bid to attract an audience base, bigger-budget titles dropped their prices to zero. And of course, once they were free, everyone had to make theirs free, or risk being left behind. Within this year, the majority of games that flooded the market were free, and we're at the point where it feels almost extortionist to charge a price for some apps/games.

Now, the games and apps industry is quite successful. This partially vindicates the new digital modelling for books for me, but not completely. See, there's differences in the context:

Unlike books, games are not linear titles. Most normally have no end, and adapt to each user. They monitor everything a player does, and some (especially these days) employ psychological techniques to sell micro-transactions within the game itself. Extra lives, more spins, better weapons and armor, etc ... Games, as individual products are dying, and becoming a service instead, designed to encourage in-app purchases. And although the scope of innovation in eBooks seems quite large (as proven over the last few years), I see no room for eBooks to earn a sustainable income through selling digital accessories, etc.

The outlook seems bleak. I don't think it is, though. If it was all bad and no good, someone would do something about it. So why don't we? It's simple - the new model makes money for the platform-holders. There'll always be people desperate enough to give their product away for free, in return for exposure. This wealth of free channels draws attention away from other retail channels, and some of the audience will spend some money; it won't be as much as before, but if traditional retailers completely die, then the one or two dominant retailers that remain can carve up the world between them, and take a percentage of everything.

This is of course just the expected theory, and cynics will say these platform-monopolies will kill traditional retailing, but I think it's just a matter of basic math - if we keep giving our content away for free, then we can't really expect to make a profit from it.

This is an emotive and very complex subject to think about. Once again, I'm not anti-eBook and pro-print, and I think there's probably some people out there smarter than me that have a plan for a sensible pricing model that has room in this eBook industry, I just want to see the industry operate in a sustainable way that does not include content creators going completely free.

Free just seems too high-a-price for creativity.

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Character Creation

There's a guy on this bus who keeps smiling to himself. He's about twenty, well-built, with a fleece jumper on and great jeans. He has a rugby badge on his backpack. And he sits there, staring at the back of the seat in-front of him, with an involuntary grin on his face.

This is the thing that made me realise I kind of missed commuting to class every day - people-watching.

All sorts of little wonderful dramas play out on the buses in the city, but lately I've been reluctant to commute, instead favouring the ease of riding my bicycle for any distance that doesn't warrant taking the car. Brisbane is connected relatively well by bike paths, which make any short commutes (such as getting to class) easy. Thankfully, the weather is currently too bad to justify cycling to university.

Which is where I am now, my university.

I sit here, now, just watching the world go by. I have an hour of spare time before my Statistics lecture, I'm caught up on all of my subjects. In these spare moments, I like to think about a rinky-dink high fantasy novel I've been writing slowly after the past year. There's no real purpose to it, or anything - just thoughts. Notes and scenarios here, a chapter there - but it seems important to give these fun little mini-hobbies due respect.

When I have the downtime to relax, and people-watch, I'll generally take from my surroundings in this case. Especially with regards to character building. Never underestimate the power of a good visual aesthetic to start building your character base. If you can clearly see your own character, it will make it a lot easier for you to communicate that to your readers. I think this is so important, in fact, that it should come before even building your map. (which is one of Tolkien's golden rules: if you want to build a world, always start with the map).

Don't worry, I have an example: I was in the city a few weeks ago at a cafe, before coming to the startled realisation that one of the waiters looked the spitting image for how I thought one of my fresh characters should look. That feeling is exciting once you grab it - once there's a clear image of how they should look (fictitious or real - I would be lying if I said one of my trickster/charlatan characters wasn't portrayed in my head as Jerome Flynn (or Bronn, from Game of Thrones)) it makes empathising with their decisions and actions a lot easier, which can sometimes help with writing. Especially with fantasy.

This may seem really obvious, but it's just some thoughts I've been having, lately.

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Mac and Me

For the longest time, I made derisive comments about Macs. I ridiculed their lack of compatible software, their strange unbuttoned mice, and their style-over-substance design. I certainly never intended to ever get one.

In the end, I was driven into the arms of a Mac by my own laptop (and through careful ushering of my partner, who is a confessed Mac-addict). Partly because of the angsty virus threats, the constant need for updates, and the slow-but-inevitable point that all Windows laptops reach when their hard-drive becomes too full to boot quickly, but you don't remember ever saving anything of note for that to happen in the first place. Mainly though, after about 16 years of using Windows-based computers, I just thought it time for a change.

The straw that broke the camel's back was due to my laptop mysteriously not booting correctly. It would begin to boot normally, and have a slight chance of making it past the DOS windows. If it succeeded on getting to the proper Windows login screen, text would be unreadable and the colour key of everything that displayed to the monitor would be muddy and off, making the entire desktop look slightly green.

I tried troubleshooting, for the heck of it. To no avail. I was well within grounds to return it to the store I bought it from, and replaced it with a Mac.

Apple products seem to just work. They do what they're meant to and they do it well. After a few months of Mac ownership, it still feels weird not knowing my way around. Everything seems too simple and friendly after nearly two decades of using a PC, but that will lessen with time, I hope. The coolest thing so far is learning to zoom around the computer in Terminal with basic Linux commands.

For now, this is the start of a beautiful friendship. I still use a Samsung phone after all, so I'm not completely converted. That said ... it is starting to get a bit old ... how much are iPhones, again?

Sunday, March 24, 2019

Automatic Thoughts

You know that time in primary/elementary schools where your teacher would tell you to use "your inside voice"?

Lately, I'm not thinking that's the most useful strategy.

Now, my teacher back then obviously meant something completely different, but I thought it was a cute rhetoric so I'm sticking with it.

Back on point, though. Isn't it weird how much 'louder' personal issues/anxieties you're having seem to the outside world than they actually are? It's almost like we (or I?) assume that everybody around me is looking at my own personal life with the same level of understanding, depth, and interest as I do.

Which, when put on paper, seems completely bonkers to assume that. But that's what happens! Sometimes I'll feel shame for minute failures. Maybe I didn't do so well in a video-game, or maybe I didn't do so great on a quiz at university, and I'll feel a mixed bag of frustration and self-doubt with a desperate need to improve. My automatic response to this (in most situations) is to feel shame for these things. Damn. I didn't do so well there. I must be dumber than X person I've met before, who probably did really well on that, and will probably think less of me for not doing as well as them! I suck.

These are completely natural feelings, but at least with me, in 9 out of 10 cases, only I can see which shots I miss. Only I can tell when I'm under-performing, and only I can beat myself up about it. Which still might not feel so good, but when I'm the only one privy to this information, and these feelings, it becomes a lot easier to control, challenge and attack the problem. Which feels good!

The obvious reality is that the people around me are more-than-likely as absorbed into their own devices as I am right now, and my own demonising thought processes are just the result of overthinking, and allowing non-existent worries to blow up into non-existent anxieties.

The more I think about it, the bigger it gets.

I'm no psychologist, but it seems like this is a bad habit that needs to be broken.

Friday, March 22, 2019

Miniature Me

I have spent the last week with my room-mate starting a new hobby. Miniature War-gaming. Yes, yes - I know what you're thinking, but bear with me. The game in question is lengthily named "Warmachine and and Hordes" ... I think of it like the small little brother of that massively famous Warhammer game that has been around for the last 40 years or so.

And wow, it is ridiculously fun.

We ordered the box sets. I chose the Troll/Ogre-like faction (aptly named "Trollbloods!"), due to my fondness of Orcs and other lumbering high fantasy concepts. I quickly learned that superglue is my personal Kryptonite, and have spent the last few days picking and peeling it off my hands. I'm pretty sure some of it is stuck to my fingernails. It has become part of me now.

Anyway. The pieces are all assembled, and look great! I started painting mine today, and 5 hours slipped by without me noticing. I shudder to think how many more hours will spent meticulously designing my miniature pieces to be my own creation, and how much money I will spend in future. The truly scary thing is this habit has no signs of abating. My entire life for the past seven-to-eight days has become Warmachine, Warmachine, Warmachine.

I'm still in control. I don't need it anymore. I don't need Warmahordes Anonymous. Not yet anyway. I could give it up tomorrow if I wanted to. But tonight, I think I'll just paint another arm and maybe one more leg ...

Nothing Here Yet ...

Don't mind this. Just a test. Regular blogging will commence shortly.