Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The real world emerges.

You can always count on the real world emerging. In all its tacky, down to earth, feet of clay, deflating reality.

Tiger Woods struggles to stay great, then he struggles to stay good, then he struggles to stay relevant.

Egypt's relatively peaceful revolution is followed by Libya' violent despot trying to hold onto power no matter what.

Madoff is followed by....nothing. No one is accountable.

Fox News lies and lies and lies. Sorry, they just do. Despicable.

We elect our first black President -- and he hires the same jerks who got us into the financial mess in the first place.

Charlie Sheen is exploited by the media. "Look! A freak show!" There comes a time to avert your gaze. He's an addict. End of story.

Houses continue to decline; jobs continue to stagnate. The stock market has a glorious ride....until the next crash.

E-books are the answer -- but no one seems to be making any money.

And on it goes.....

13 comments:

RDC said...

Why are you saying that noone is making any money with e-books? The publishers are. Amazon clearly is. The groups that are not is the traditional brick and motor retailer, Print shops and shipping companies. They clearly lose business in that model.

However, the model does allow for the end consumer to buy at a lower price, while the publishers and authors continue to receive equal or greater compensation then they do today. What is clearly coming out of the data is the number of books purchased increases once someone goes to e-books. I expect the next step in the model will be for purchase directly from the publisher, resulting in an even higher level of efficiency in the supply chain. (I know of one publisher that started doing that a couple of years ago)

Anonymous said...

Authors make more money on E-BOOKS? Ahh come on grasshopper. I used to be an author and a publisher, .. the trouble is there is no way to audit the electronic sales.

Me thinks RDC is some kind of promoter for electronic-publishing.

Hell yes amazon.com and apple.com are making money re-selling other peoples content, and yes they're making all the money.

I concur with dunc, if ma&pa on main-street ain't making money, then nobody is making money, if CORP-USA is making money, and it ain't trickling down, then nobody is making money.

Lastly, like henry-ford said, who will buy my cars if my employees have no money. In the future years of austerity, and the minimal people that actually will have iPads, or Kindles, ... who in the fuck will buy this electronic shit, when electricity is dear, and battery's are astronomical who will buy the ethereal books?

Again, my reading of dunc is that nobody is making money, and he's talking about the common man. Once again RDC shows his card's by defending CORP-USA, albeit he probably thinks he's a member, but given that he's in Bend, its all in his mind.

Yes, somebody is making money, but its not the people who count. The authors will not make more money, when there is no competition, when there is only one electronic reseller, the author will be lucky to get 1% of the NET. Content will go to hell, what's worse with electronic is how easy it is to pull the plug, like how last year they pulled the plug on the works of ORWELL.

I NEVER NEVER bought an electronic content ( book ... ) nor will I ever.

Anonymous said...

It's simply amazing the negativity, in the last 2 weeks about the collapse of the dollar. This has gone mainstream, its story #1 today in the WSJ.

Ok, dunc, I like it better when your poly-anna everyday, why the negativity today? That's my job :)

Yes, the 'real world' emerges, but it was always there. What's new?? It was always there. There was always pain and suffering in the hood. There was always rape and hunger in Watts. It never ended.

Today the middle-class is Bend gone (tm). Today the myth of a better life for your children is Bend Over (tm). Maybe that is the reason for the 'real world' to emerge to the bambist's. The USA is/was always a rotten corpse of greed and death, the oil-wars have been going on almost a century.

I think the 'real world' today is that its all being lost before our eyes in quick fashion. But this is how it always ends. Everybody profited equally from robbing the world, and every GOOD USA NAZI remained silent. Now the stolen goods are no longer being re-distributed, ... so the AmeriKKKan people will riot in the streets.

The food riots in the USA are coming, some say 2012, but they're coming. What the USA has done to the middle-east with inflation, by making petro-dollars worthless, skyrocketing food, makes people hit the streets, and they'll hit the streets here, what comes first the tea-bagger's pulling the plug on welfare, or the dollar not buying bread. Stores clearing out because you know that tomorrow the price will be 2X and your income is constant. The shelves clear rather quickly when people realize that all commodities go up 10X a week.

A nation of grifters. A nation of fuckers and fuckees. A people who chase the dollar and ignore their fellow man. Even the church cannot save us now, because as in Bend, the church ( MOSS-etc ), are some of the biggest frauds around,

Everyone has lost their moral compass. Hollywood 24/7 is now porn, drugs, and alcohol. Everything the USA loves is now that which destroys us. There is NOBODY with the MORAL leadership to right the ship. Certainly not Obama who gave tenure to those that robbed us in the first place.

Hopelessness. We wrote about that a few years ago. When people become hopeless, then all is lost, and there is nothing left to live for.

Like I have always said ...
1.) Kill your TV
2.) Take care of your family

Anonymous said...

Everybody USA CITIZEN profited equally from robbing the world, and every GOOD USA NAZI remained silent. Now the stolen goods are no longer being re-distributed, ... so the AmeriKKKan people will riot in the streets.

Anonymous said...

Regarding Fox News, check out their recent O'Reilly clip of the 'violent' labor protests in Wisconsin .... you know, where it's 85 degrees and the palm trees are blowing in the ocean breeze.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/subtropical-wisconsin/

Anonymous said...

Yes, ... direct publishing, yes RDC that is the answer.

But the problem is ego, most 'authors' don't realize the scale of efficiency that they think if they sell 100X they'll make MORE money.

The problem is rarely does the dealer or re-seller ( the person who sells your warez ), rarely does he/she 10X, 100X your sales, but always he keeps 90% of your sale. So in effect if a 'publisher' is smart enough to realize that even 'micro-sale' and keep 100% of the sale is better than 'blockbuster' but getting 0.0001% of some NET numbers.

Most authors in my lifetime aren't smart enough to be publishers, ... its just not 'creative' enough for them. But yes, I concur that a minority of folks that have 'good content' can and will 'self publish' and keep 100% of the sales, and this my friends is the secret of wealth, not passing on your PROFIT to the VAR who add's nothing to your art.

RDC said...

Actually there is. Most publishers are only supporting one of the locked formats. Those can very easily be audited.


One publisher, Baen, choses to support unlocked formats as well as the locked channels. They even give copies of their backlist away free. What they have found is that the free backlist copies is functioning as very good advertising for the sales. End results is increased revenue for their authors.

One of their authors, Eric Flint, has written a very good paper on why you don't want to lock e-book sales. Basically it is because most authors reach a very small percentage of the audience. It is not very transparent. As such the more you can get the word out and get people to read that author the greater sales of that authors next book. It has worked very well for Baen.

RDC said...

Direct sales would not be from the authors. It would be by the publishers. Even with e-bboks the publishers still do the proofreading, formatting, and other services.

Anonymous said...

Why so negative? ( The joker from Batman )

Anonymous said...

Another thing to say about self publishing.

Back in the 1970's we could easily self publish and sell software for $500, or $1,000, and thus make good money. If you had a royalty base and had someone like MS resell your software they would give you a percentage of NET, e.g. make you pay all marketing costs, ...

Now with 'books' selling online for a few bucks, the author would only get penny's at best. The blockbuster is too few too mention, albeit for apple.com or amazon.com selling millions of books a day for a few bucks is wonderful 'real cash flow'. Whats in it for the little-guy? Nothing.

Me thinks that selling books online 'direct' unless you can can get more than $10, ... I mean what's the point. Too often today I see people I know sell APP's ( apple ) for a $1-2 each, and these folks spend 1,000's of hours developing the software. I mean this is less money than I made as a kid on a paper route.

The problem here is that you really can't make money. I'm sure glad I was around in the 60's, 70's, & 80's, when 'real money' could be made.

Post 2000 every body wanted everything for free, now everything is stolen. So even if you do offer online content for $1-5, most of it will end up on pirate-bay for free. Ok, I'm sure there is encrypted shit for kindle, but my experience is that these obfuscation technology's just create problems for users, like Apple MP4 encryption tools which make shit you buy from apple worthless.

I would like to have RDC confirm that he is really selling books online direct for $1-2 a pop. Me thinks he's not and is just talking out of his ass, and thinking that's he's going to be the next amazon or apple, which is statistically impossible.

These days only a few make the real money, and most make nothing. Gone are the days when you just had to be there and make money. Of course nothing lasts for long, all gold rushes end, and the money is always made by selling the KIT.

The thing now, is where is the gold rush? Games? That too is controlled by a few. Phone App's are a joke, where a minuscule number of people make advertising dollar.

The REAL problem is that CONTENT is now essentially free. The world such as INDIA or CHINA, or AFRICA doesn't pay for INFORMATION, the cost of a DVD is manufacturing, all content is STOLEN. The minority nations are paying for content, while the majority doesn't, everyday that passes MORE people in the USA take on the INTL model, which is NOT to pay for content.

Thus IMHO the future of ONLINE sales of content will diminish, .. of course on the other hand the INTERNET of the future will be so controlled and censored, just maybe people in controlled nations like the USA will have to PAY big bucks for access to INFO. This could happen rather quickly

The FREE model that we have had since 1996 ( WWW ) is NOT going to last, as those who create will get tired of working for free. Advertising models will not work forever, as advertisers will find new ways to reach consumers.

Everything TODAY is get in, and get out quick. Gone is the day of folk like DUNC who build a brick&mortar biz for 30+ years and nurture and grow.

The ENTIRE model today of technology, is to develop&DEPLOY ASAP, and find a buyer and RUN. This model has no future.

H. Bruce Miller said...

"Lastly, like henry-ford said, who will buy my cars if my employees have no money."

Amazing how many crapitalists can't understand that. Or don't want to.

Or maybe just don't care. They figure as long as they can squeeze a few more drops of blood out of the middle class, they'll be okay.

Anonymous said...

Or maybe just don't care. They figure as long as they can squeeze a few more drops of blood out of the middle class, they'll be okay.

*

It's a fucker & fuckee society. I'll tell my story about how they think cuz I learned this first hand in the 1960's. Everybody assumes they'll get their 1% of the loot, the trouble is there are 10,000 company's playing the game.

These days you got auto-insur trying to get their 10%, and housing has gone from 30% to 60%, then you got government who has gone from 20% to 70%, ... something has to give.

Then you got the fuck that the USA is a consumer driven economy, ok fine they gave them lots of credit to keep it all going, but now people are in massive debt.

We'll its all cyclic, and I'm sure out there is a REAL HenryFord right now trying to do the right thing so his employees can buy his product. But then HENRY was a bright guy.

Sadly most TBTF ( to big to fail ) CORP-USA companys today, all are playing the same game, they are entitled to 1-10% of the human usa citizen flesh, ... and they'll get it.

Like robbing the social security trust, or exchanging pension cach for IOU's back in the 1980's or reneging on public pensions today. In any given time you look where the big boyz are making the big money. Today the BIG MONEY is made by theft.

Of course the FORD analogy was only useful in the 1920's ( folks paid cash for cars ), today of course there is a HUGE machine called debt, back in the 1980's the GM-CAPITAL was bigger than GM, .e.g. GM only made 8% ROI on making cars, but was making 15% ROI on loaning money, so everybody got into the biz of being a loan-shark, and out of the biz of manufacturing which wasn't profitable.

Ok, jump forward to today where you can borrow money, but there are no jobs. Who could have guessed.

Well there are too many houses, so that's out, ahh well folks got to eat, and they will.

Many things now will give, too many USA CORPS want their 1%, but I think now we're going to go to a model of 60% goes to government, and 20% to food, and 10% to entertainment, and 10,000 companys will all fight about the last 10% of human flesh on the table.

Historically USA paid 2% for food, cheapest food on earth, that's going to change now. Most people will not be able to afford a car in the future.

Move along the USA is just another 3rd world country.
At least in SE-ASIA everybody has a moped, ... TOO FUCKING COLD in Bend to drive a modped. $1 a week for fuel to do errands. Insurance is almost free, and medical costs are negligible. INDEED AMERIKKKA WHAT WENT WRONG?

H. Bruce Miller said...

"Now with 'books' selling online for a few bucks, the author would only get penny's at best."

Authors, except for a few superstars, never made big money. The author's royalty is typically 15% for a hardcover book, 7.5% for a paperback (if there is one). If you've got a million-seller that's fine, but the typical sale for a hardcover novel by a first-time author is around 15,000 copies.

Since the publisher of e-books doesn't have the huge expense of printing and distribution, publishers should get a smaller cut and authors should get more. Authors, agents and publishers will have to work this out among themselves.