Some words to consider when you’re not sure what you’re feeling.
Category Archives: 2015
Emotions people feel but can’t explain
Some words to consider when you’re not sure what you’re feeling.
What Not to Say to Bookstore Employees
Source: http://bookriot.com/2015/07/03/what-not-to-say-to-bookstore-employees-2/
Avoid bookstore faux pas like the following while speaking to the overworked bookstore employees with their smocks and helpful head nods:
- How much does this cost on Amazon?
- How can you work here when Amazon Prime exists? Are you on Amazon Prime?
- I’m a writer and I don’t want to waste my time, so which of these should I actually read?
- I only read signed copies. Where is the signed section?
- I don’t need help. I just come by the bookstore to hit on the smart people buying Ulysses for light, fun reading.
- I don’t need help. I just want to write down all of Giada’s recipes.
- I don’t need help. I’m just figuring out where my book will be shelved once I finish it, get an agent, sell it, and get it stocked here, in this location.
- I don’t need help. I’m just writing notes on page fifteen of every book. I’m creating a treasure hunt for the bookish.
- Which of these is going to be a movie? I want to judge the future movie by the past cover.
- How many teens die in this one? I only respond to mass numbers of teen deaths.
- If I just spilled my coffee on the hardcover book of swimming dogs, should I tell you about it?
Rest of the list at: http://bookriot.com/2015/07/03/what-not-to-say-to-bookstore-employees-2/
Court ruling against Apple over e-book pricing upheld
Apple’s mistake was hooking up with the book-publishing cartel
Source: http://fortune.com/2015/06/30/apple-court-books/
An appeal court’s decision finding Apple guilty of collusion with publishers reinforces just how cozy a cartel the industry was.
Apple may be trying to keep the spotlight on its latest foray into the streaming-music business, but it is also still trying to clean up the mess caused by its ham-handed entry into an earlier market: book publishing. A federal court on Tuesday rejected the company’s appeal of an earlier ruling that found it guilty of orchestrating a conspiracy with the major book publishers, in what the court said was a successful attempt to artificially inflate the price of e-books.
As Fortune‘s Jeff Roberts reports, the court found Apple AAPL -0.16% engaged in collusion with what amounted to an oligopoly—namely, Harper Collins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Hachette and Macmillan—and that its actions were a clear breach of antitrust law. Apple argued that the deal it cut with the publishers was necessary to blunt Amazon’s dominance in the e-book market, but the appeals court didn’t buy that argument. Judge Debra Ann Livingston wrote:
“Competition is not served by permitting a market entrant to eliminate price competition as a condition of entry, and it is cold comfort to consumers that they gained a new ebook retailer at the expense of passing control over all ebook prices to a cartel of book publishers.”
One reason the court failed to buy this argument is that the major publishers clearly had zero interest in actually competing on price—in fact, they wanted to do exactly the opposite. Their interest in doing a deal with Apple stemmed from a desire to maintain the existing favorable price structure for books, which allowed them to milk the market for high-priced hardcover versions of new novels before eventually releasing cheaper versions. Amazon’s AMZN 0.07% low-priced e-books were a threat.
Rest of the article: http://fortune.com/2015/06/30/apple-court-books/
***
One lawyer’s comments on the judgment:
The Passive Voice
Source: http://www.thepassivevoice.com/07/2015/apples-mistake-was-hooking-up-with-the-book-publishing-cartel/
After strong-arming Amazon into accepting the new “agency pricing” model—in which the publishers got to set the price for their books, rather than allowing the retailer to do so—the book industry got exactly what it wanted. According to research by the Justice Department, the price of newly released books rose by an average of 24% and bestsellers climbed by 40%.
It says a lot about the book-publishing business that doing this actually caused book sales to drop fairly dramatically across the board: research done by another expert using data from Random House showed that publishers who switched to the agency model sold close to 15% fewer books than they would have otherwise. So the industry was effectively willing to trade a short-term decline in sales for the increase in power that they got over pricing as a result of the deal with Apple.
Full blog entry at: http://www.thepassivevoice.com/07/2015/apples-mistake-was-hooking-up-with-the-book-publishing-cartel/
Filed under 2015, book publishing
Photo finish Friday: “Root a Vega”
This is what happens when you’ve been stuck in a rut so long: the rut gets stuck on you.
Filed under 2015, photo by David E. Booker, Photo Finish Friday
Haiku to you Thursday: “Align”
I sit, wait, and age. /
Celestial bodies align. /
Mine aligns with dust.
Filed under 2015, Haiku to You Thursday, poetry by author
Writing tip Wednesday: “Wheel of Words”
A quick chart that might help if you get stuck.
Filed under 2015, writing tip, Writing Tip Wednesday
cARtOONSdAY: “i sPY”
Willard now understood why they offered him a disguise at the sign in table.
Filed under 2015, cartoon by author, CarToonsday
Monday morning writing joke: “Candle”
Q.: What’s the difference between a propaganda writer and a roman candle?
A.: Depends upon how much a roman candle is selling for.
***
Three writers walk into a fireworks store. Each has $1. One buys a cherry bomb. The second buys a pack of firecrackers. The third buys a sparkler. Which one’s the poet?
A.: The one with the cherry bomb. Metaphorically, he’s trying to get the biggest bang for his buck.
Filed under 2015, Monday morning writing joke
The blathering idiot and a word from our sponsor
The quest for the highest office in the land begins … again.
The blathering idiot and Lydia were sitting in a conference room with the consultant. The blathering idiot was about to go out to the podium and microphone and announce his candidacy for the highest office in the land.
“We have to do it now,” the consultant said. “June is National Accordion month. We are the Pro-Accordion Party. If we don’t announce now, what will people think?”
Lydia nodded. “He has a point.”
“Then why aren’t accordion makers sponsoring us?” the blathering idiot asked.
“Because there are no accordion makers in the U.S. They’re all made overseas and foreign companies and countries can’t buy elections.”
“But U.S. companies can?”
“That’s not what I meant,” the consultant said. He wiped the sweat from his brow. “Look, this was the best I could do. I will try for additional sponsors, but right now this is the only one, and unlike other parties and candidates, we need one. Hell, we need more than one.”
“I have to read all of it?”
Lydia touched his arm. “I will be out there with you. You read part of it. I’ll read part of it.”
“And the consultant will read part of it?”
“That’s not his job,” Lydia said.
“But it is mine?”
Lydia nodded. “Sadly, yes.”
Shaking his head, the blathering idiot walked to the next room and stepped up on podium. It looked out at the two, maybe three people who had come to hear his announcement.
“I, today, am again a candidate for the highest office in the land. I do this because … because …” From that point on, the blathering idiot rambled about making the country a better place, unifying the waring ideological factions, and giving a voice to the voiceless. He finished, turned, and started to leave. Lydia grabbed his arm and gently turned him around and handed him a piece of paper. The blathering idiot turned, cleared his throat, and read:
“And now a word from our sponsor: This campaign for the highest office in the land is brought to you by Puns in a Pak. Whether you buy one pack, two, or get the deep discount for buying by the gross, Puns in a Pak are shop-tested and well-lubricated – ready to slip into your casual conversation, work e-mail, or most intimate moment. Nothing lifts a trite phrase up out of the dust bin of inequity like Puns in a Pak. On sale today online or at your local grammarian shop. And for those politically minded, try our Puns in a PAC. Nothing says politics like Puns in a PAC. Ask us about our special Super-Pak PAC of puns, created especially for this election season. Puns in PAC, when nothing else will do.”
Filed under 2015, political humor
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