The Mind of John Scalzi - Shorts and E-readers

No, this is not about that pesky laptop cooking the boys problem that many people have, but two interesting article by author John Scalzi.

Shorts and Singles - thoughts about Amazon's plans for marketing short form fiction and the future of that market in general.

Reading Electronically: A Review - thoughts about reading electronically, and the Nook in particular.

What I Think About Atlas Shrugged and a Yogurt Scenario- John Scalzi

The best (and funniest) analysis of Ayn Rand and her wacky arguments for laissez faire capitalism I've read.

What I Think About Atlas Shrugged - Whatever:

"In the wake of the “Objectivist Jerky” crack I made earlier in the week, I was asked by a friend of mine to share my thoughts on Atlas Shrugged with the general public. I suspect this friend then went off to make herself some popcorn in preparation for the presumed inevitable mind-losing that will occur in the comments. That’s what I am to you people: cheap entertainment. Well, fine."

Scalzi couldn't get the yogurt idea out of his head so he wrote a short story about it. Scalzi's point that if you make up a pretend universe with perfect straw men you can prove any philosophical or political point.

When the Yogurt Took Over: A Short Story - Whatever

On How Many Times I Should Get Paid For a Book (By Readers) by John Scalzi

John Scalzi joined the debate on "illegal" copies of books when he wrote this article in reaction to an article written by Randy Cohen of the New York Times. Randy, who writes an ethics column, considers it ethical to download a pirated e-book version of a book that you have already purchased.

John's view is that as a writer, he only sees money from a single purchase of a book. If he doesn't see any more money when the book is re-sold second hand he isn't too worried about a reader who, after buying the hardcover or paperback, makes free of any electronic versions out there. In fact, he suggests that a book should come with a registration code to pick up a free copy of the e-book from any of the major e-book stores.

He still believes that the people to make the pirated books are criminals; and purchasing a book does not give one the right to a pirate version of the audiobook (let alone the "movie based on the book"). I think he is taking a very sensible approach to the burgeoning e-book market: his interest is in his own welfare -- the more of his older work is available (after he's most likely wrung his last deserved dollar out of it) the more likely someone from this wider audience will purchase his new work.


On How Many Times I Should Get Paid For a Book (By Readers) - Whatever:

When John himself bought an e-book after buying and misplacing the dead-tree version...

"I pay the authors more than once, because I can and I think I should. However, I also put such actions in the ethical category of “morally praiseworthy but not morally obligatory” — that is, I believe my transactional responsibility to the author was fulfilled the first time I paid her. Additional payments to the author are optional, and indeed are sometimes transactionally difficult. If a book is out of print I may have no choice but to buy a used physical copy, for which an author gets nothing, or acquire an unauthorized electronic edition, which again gives nothing to the author."

Bitter Seeds: A book I'd like to read soon

Positive reviews from Cory Doctorow (BITTER SEEDS: Alternate WWII novel pits English warlocks against Nazi X-Men), and John Scalzi (The Big Idea: Ian Tregillis) for Ian Tregillis's Bitter Seeds.

Bitter Seeds is an alternate history of WWII with Germany fielding a group of comic-book style supervillians and the British using warlocks and blood magick. It is the first book of a trilogy (Milkweed Triptych).

You can get the Prologue to the book at the author's website.