Reading, ethics and costs.

[Time Waster]

What's the issue with the ethics of paying 72p for something produced centuries ago then?

Most of the cheaper stuff I've read has been trying to find something new when I've read everything by my preferred authors. I'm certainly not a high brow reader, generally reading thrillers etc. and there is just so much out there where they've tried to copy the style or concepts of more successful authors. I found one author who was just about worth going through their whole series at around £2-£3 a book but with most others I've felt ripped off even at those prices. No coherent plot, no research, regurgitating stuff I've read in other books etc. I've certainly given up on far more cheap ebooks than I ever have on hard copy books. Whether that's because I'm more tolerant when I've spent more or because the publishing industry does a decent filtering job who knows?

if you like crime thrillers (of the pedigree of Agatha Christie perhaps) then check out British Library book series. I got one in my lucky dip library bag collected from the open doorway during COVID 19 lockdown. It was a collection of crime short stories from one of the magazines that the likes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and even Edgar Allan Poe wrote in I believe. They were old stories too from 1800s or even 1700s right through to Agatha Christie heyday.

The other thing is that this book was more of an anthology with explanation pieces in the chapter lead in to each new story. This explained the history of each particular story and style of crime thriller. I mean there are several types of locked room styles on there own. The styles where you know who has done it but not how. Procedural ones where you learn the methodology of crime investigation and can work with them to see if you get there first. All this adds to the quaintness of olden times and even mores. Not one needs a trigger warning neither.

I cannot tell you which book it was but it was one of those British Library enprint ones. They do crime stories on water too. I read one on water and it was also good. Didn't get on with the train one though but there were the odd decent tale in there. heartily recommend looking for that book and enprint.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Go back to big publishing houses gatekeeping what can be published?

That's the ones (a handful of people) who used to decide what was unoriginal and unsellable.
Nowadays it's us who decide, the general public.
However, before deciding, we must buy the works first.
If they are cheap enough, we might be tempted.
If the author is successful they'll probably up the price of their next book.
I think this way is better, gives more authors a chance of exposure, of course also subject to their team's marketing skills.

PS the 72 pence ebook was a good translation of a Roman philosopher of the Stoic school of philosophy. Is that unoriginal or cr@p?

The cheap price would be because the author's copyrights are well expired!
They expire 50 years after their death iirc.
If the translator has been dead for more than 50 years too, then the 72p are all the publisher's profit, no printing or storing costs.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Indeed! The scene where the hero does a wet fart while fighting a knife man would make Anry McNab nod with approval.

Have you sold the film right yet

I'm pretty sure Tom Cruise is looking for a new blockbuster and it sounds right down his alley

not sure he is totally physically suited to play you in a film though????

 

[Time Waster]

Have you sold the film right yet

I'm pretty sure Tom Cruise is looking for a new blockbuster and it sounds right down his alley

not sure he is totally physically suited to play you in a film though????

Why? he played Jack Reacher character!!!!!

A huge bulk of a man in the books who was 6'5" and so big he made men think more than twice when he walks into the room!! Perhaps if the character was 5'6" then with cuban heels, heel lifts and camera angles he could play it ok, right? Worst film series ever IMHO due to casting. The better one is the Reacher series on was it Amazon Prime? That guy is a 2m plus guy built like a mountain (Drago??? Were you the actor or the person the author based the character on?).

 

[Drago]

Have you sold the film right yet

Michael Mann showed an interest in directing a film adaption, and Gérard Butler signed on to play the lead.

But then Disney bought it, changed the lead character to a crossdresser played by Eddie Murphy, and it ended up going straight to DVD in the bargain bin at the petrol station and I somehow ended up owing Disney money.

 

[Drago]

Why? he played Jack Reacher character!!!!!

A huge bulk of a man in the books who was 6'5" and so big he made men think more than twice when he walks into the room!! Perhaps if the character was 5'6" then with cuban heels, heel lifts and camera angles he could play it ok, right? Worst film series ever IMHO due to casting. The better one is the Reacher series on was it Amazon Prime? That guy is a 2m plus guy built like a mountain (Drago??? Were you the actor or the person the author based the character on?).

Dwayne Johnson, a real life 6'5" man mountain, auditioned to play Reacher in them original films...and they gave to to Tom Cruise instead. Clearly the church of scientology had some dirt on the casting director.

 

[Reynard]

I wonder what classes as cr@p and unoriginal? The latter is a well used term but some of the most respected works in the English languages used the storylines of ancient Greek works. I cannot remember what but I think you can thing of all the greats having borrowed or used what was before them.

Also isn't that a bit elitist and judgemental. Every writer has a market and if they enjoy what another person calles cr@p well I would rather they were reading and enjoying themselves than only sticking to the great novelists of the past or whatever counts and the opposite of cr@p.

PS the 72 pence ebook was a good translation of a Roman philosopher of the Stoic school of philosophy. Is that unoriginal or cr@p? I think it might have been the narrative of his debates and discussions, as written by one of his students who was there at the time.

TBH, there's a limited number of actual plots / tropes in existence - every novel is pretty well much a variation on a theme. Where the originality comes in, is in the characters and setting. And that's where the real skill of the writer shines through.

A writer is also a reader, a researcher and an avid observer of the world around them. Throw all of those ingredients into a vivid imagination, and you'll get plot bunnies for interesting and original stories.

 

[Beebo]

And I entered the thread thinking it was referring to a Town in Berkshire

It’s about the cost of relocating Reading from Berkshire to Essex.

 

[Pross]

Why? he played Jack Reacher character!!!!!

A huge bulk of a man in the books who was 6'5" and so big he made men think more than twice when he walks into the room!! Perhaps if the character was 5'6" then with cuban heels, heel lifts and camera angles he could play it ok, right? Worst film series ever IMHO due to casting. The better one is the Reacher series on was it Amazon Prime? That guy is a 2m plus guy built like a mountain (Drago??? Were you the actor or the person the author based the character on?).

The one on Prime also walks like someone who just did a wet fart in a knife fight so would be perfect

 

[Drago]

The one on Prime also walks like someone who just did a wet fart in a knife fight so would be perfect

I'll let you tell him!

 

[Alex321]

Batteries, plastics, electronics, etc in kindles and ebook readers. They have to be made from materials that are mined or drilled for. Then do they always get recycled or dumped? I know there is the electronic waste regulations but wasn't there cases of them ending up in a dump on the side of an African river somewhere very poor?? Then there is the question of author earning for their hard work. Then what is the cost for getting thee e-book to you? Isn't it partly a form of cloud computing with data centres with all their energy and water costs??

While these costs are certainly all significant, they are also much less per copy than the equivalent costs of producing paper books.

I do not think any of this is crystal clear for any method of reading. I do have one thing my partner said. Isn't it wrong for things to be too cheap? I mean it promotes consumerism but also you do not get anything goood for long if it is sold too cheaply. If you do not pay much for the book in any media then there is less for the author to get. What is the author's percentage on 72 pence??

Well Drago above says he gets 60% - which is way more than any author gets as a percetage of retail price on physical books, and very possibly as much in cash terms per copy.

How many books do you have to sell to get the minimum wage for that ebook??? Nothing cheap is completely innocent and good. Take fast fashion sold cheaply but then thrown away quickly too. It all adds up.

Very few authors outside the big household names make more than minimum wage for their time. That has always been the case. With e-books, if a book becomes popular, it can be downloaded infinitely without needing a new print run.

I personally do not have a view. I am likely to get thee 72 pence e-book as I am really only checking it out and might not get through the book anyway. However I do have less ethics than others so it does not bother me much.

We still tend to buy mostly physical books - and quite a lot of them. My e-reader is a Nook (no longer produced), and my wife doesn't have one at all. I rarely use it apart from taking it on holiday. But I don't think there is any real ethical issue buying e-books over physical books.

 

[Conrad_K]

An ebook costing £1:00 may bring an author as much as a hard-bound book costing £20:00

People think traditional publishers sell books. That's not what they do. Their business is selling *paper*. The printing part is how they monetize the persuade customers to buy the paper.

Like the old Western saying goes, "Ranchers don't raise cattle. They raise grass. The cattle are just how they monetize the grass."

A lot of the Old West becomes clearer when viewed through that lens.

 

[postman]

It's a no brainer Kindle Unlimited,£9-49 per month,i was on it but had sight issues so cancelled,but one new lens and all is great so very soon i am going back on it.We have hundreds of books,sister in law buys them reads them passes them on to Mrs P i might get the odd one,but i don't like the story lines so nearly all of them are no good to me.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Book exchanges are also a good way of getting hold of books.

I just visit the local phone box 😁

 

[Reynard]

I just visit the local phone box 😁

A phone box, a wardrobe and a bus shelter.

Oh, and a shelf in Tesco.