That's not what I'd planned to do this morning.

Fifteen minutes after I dragged myself out of bed (late) and dressed, because I was determined to be efficient today and write 10,000 words, Mom came in and said she was having trouble with her new Sony Pocket ereader. Specifically, the Sony elibrary crap program was no longer able to put books on her reader.

I checked it out, and sure enough, it wouldn't. Microsoft ever so helpfully informed us that "A problem has caused the program to stop working." A problem. I love how they're so specific. Mom had found a workaround online, but when I tried it that didn't work either. I tried a few other things and nothing worked. Her $200 ereader was now a $200 paperweight.

She only bought the thing a few weeks ago, so she's now returned it and I've given her my ereader, which I haven't used much since I bought it this February. I'm disgusted with Sony, which can't even make its own software work properly, and I'm disgusted that I couldn't use Mom's reader on my computer because my reader was already registered to my computer. It's sort of like Sony is saying, "The reader you spent a small fortune on is not actually yours, and the books you bought in good faith are not actually yours, and while we're at it, we'll take that computer too." Lame. Sony's now on my shit list and frankly I'm already tired of my ereader, which had too many minuses for me to want to enjoy the pluses. I'll try again when the new generation of readers comes out, maybe next year.

In the meantime, I have all these paper books that work just fine and which I can reread and loan out and sell to a used book store if I like. In fact, I got my used copy of Fritz Leiber's Swords & Deviltry in the mail today. I've been wanting to read it for years but it's been out of print. I finally broke down and bought a copy, and if I weren't so close to finishing Bell-Men, I'd say bugger off to 10k day and just read instead. Lord knows I haven't written a single word all morning anyway.

Finish Friday. Not Finnish Friday, though.

In a blatant attempt to occupy all possible outlets for non-writing activities, I've purchased and am downloading ten episodes of Ghost Hunters (the "scariest episodes" compilation, newly released), which is taking forever and tying up most of my computer's brain, plus I plugged in my ereader to recharge it (if you don't use it for a few weeks the battery drops dead and has to be reanimated). And since it's Friday afternoon there's nothing on TV worth watching. Thus I am working on "Cult of the Butterfly."

Well, sort of working on it. In fits and starts. When I get stuck, I go to the original file and do a little copy and paste action. The result is going to be really bad, but I'll get it done today. Unless, of course, I finish downloading those Ghost Hunter episodes first.

Good books make life worth living

I just finished reading Lisa Shearin's The Trouble with Demons. Lots of fun! I downloaded it yesterday morning to my ereader, after a duh moment while I was getting ready for work--the book was released yesterday, but the day starts early and I didn't actually have to wait until I got off work to buy it. So yay for my Sony reader yet again! And yay for good books!

Now it's about 8pm, I'm off work tomorrow, and I just got paid. Life is good.

Waiting for the critique

I revised "The Neverstone" today at lunch and again when I got home from work. Then I saved it as a pdf and stuck it on my Sony reader so Mom can read it. She's working on it now.

I am torn between the "oh cool!" factor of using my ereader to help with my writing and the "oh gulp" factor of using my mom as an emergency beta reader. It's not that my mom doesn't like my writing, but she doesn't read much fantasy and doesn't really like it. I dread what she's going to say about the story. I basically just want to make sure it makes sense, doesn't have any gaping plot holes, and is entertaining. If it passes all those tests, I'll send it to the editor and go on with my life.

I am a bit concerned that I can hear the opening strains of the Star Wars music coming from Mom's bedroom, where I thought she was reading my story. I am pretty sure I did not embed any music in the file.

Update: Okay, it's passed the test and I've sent it off. If the editor asks for another rewrite, I'll tell him I died.

And the verdict is...awesomeness

I officially absolutely love my Sony reader.

I bought Patricia Briggs's Bone Crossed today for about eleven bucks, which is reasonable enough, I guess, considering the hardback is around $25. I just finished it and I'm glad I spent the money, because it's a great book.

So I really like the reader. It feels very much like a real book, although I do miss the squashiness of a paperback. I'm hard on paperbacks when I read them. When I've read a paperback, everyone knows it's been read because the spine's all messed up, but I can't do that to the reader. But that's a minor issue. It feels so much like a regular book that I've caught myself reaching up to turn a physical page instead of hitting the next-page button. The screen looks very much like ink on paper (or at least newsprint on newspaper) and is easy on the eyes. It does require an outside light source since the screen isn't backlit, and in fact it seems to require more light than an ordinary book since the contrast between print and background isn't as high as most books, but the print is crisp and readable.

Lest you think it's just me being enthusiastic with a new gadget, last night Mom downloaded Red Mars onto the reader and tried it out. She says exactly the same things as I do about it, and she's talking about getting one of her own. Blue, in her case. Mine's red, did I mention?

IT'S HERE!!!

At about noon, UPS delivered my new Sony 505 ereader! It's red! It took about 45 minutes to charge (via USB port on the computer). Until the end of March, the reader comes with 100 free downloads from the Sony ebooks store--classics only, of course. That means public domain stuff that's only $1.99 to start with. But that's fine, because I am one of those crazy English-major types who read Shakespeare and so forth for fun. The first thing I downloaded was Dracula. :)

Now, I got 100 free downloads, and I grabbed about 30 books right off even though I don't have to get them all today. Then I dumped them all onto the reader at once just like I do with my MP3 player and new songs. Um, don't do this. Because books are bigger than songs. It's been about 30 minutes and it's still downloading. I can't disconnect or read anything until it's done, and the library has locked up in the meantime.

The Sony library site is not great. It's kind of awkward to navigate. I also don't like that you can't turn on the reader if it's plugged in. You have to unplug it, turn it on, then plug it back in, and the first time I tried that it turned itself off after a few minutes anyway. That was right after it had finished charging, though.

Once these stupid free books have downloaded, I'm going to try putting another ebook on the reader, a pdf version that I bought a few months ago from a small publisher and never did get around to reading. I think it'll be perfect for the Sony. I'll post later to let you all know how it works.

I am frankly awed that I got the reader today--I thought it would be at least a week, probably two. Yay for UPS!

Edit: the troubleshooting section of the manual said to yank that puppy's connection and restart. So now I have books!

What have I DONE?

I just ordered a Sony 505 ereader. It's red.

Yes, I just blew $269 for a piece of technology that requires me to buy more stuff in order to use it. Although it does come with a voucher for $100 worth of ebooks. And a red leather case.

Red is my favorite color, have I mentioned? It also comes in blue or silver, but red is the best color.

It probably won't get here for a few weeks since I chose free-ass shipping. I'll keep you posted, naturally, and of course I'll be very vocal about what I like or dislike about it.

Now I have to write a lot of stories. I've got to pay for this stupid ereader.

ereaders AGAIN

I keep revisiting this subject, from time to time. This weekend I was almost convinced I had to buy an ereader. Now I've changed my mind again, after a little bit of research.

Item the first: I really like the Sony reader. It's small, comes in a nice case, and you can get it in red! Red is the best color! But you have to buy books from the Sony store exclusively, or suffer with smallified (un-zoomable) PDF versions of text. Also, there's no internet connection; you plug it into your computer to load it, like my cheap-ass MP3 player. So you can't buy and download a book on impulse.

Item the second: the Kindle is hideous, badly designed with too many buttons, and you have to pay to transfer PDFs onto it. It has internet capability, but an oppressive EULA.

Item the third: $400 for a Kindle, $300 for a Sony reader, and then around $10 for each book.

Here's an excellent article about ebooks and readers and how people think of them at Ars Technica (I got it via Making Light). Essentially, the article's point is that ebooks are inevitable and the resistance people have to them right now is illogical, but that adoption of ebooks is hampered by DRM and confusion about ereaders and downloads (and a lot of other stuff).

Back about (gosh!) a year and a half ago, when I was first thinking of ebooks and wondering what I wanted in one, I said I wanted one that would mimic a book in certain ways--opening up with two screens in the middle (like facing pages) and so forth. I don't think that's necessary now. What I want in an ereader is the ability to download on the fly from anywhere. If I want to buy a book in PDF form directly from a small publisher, I want to be able to do that. If I want to buy a book from Sony's store, or Amazon's Kindle store, I want to be able to do that too and read it. In short, I don't want to have to deal with DRM, or proprietary software crap, or restrictions on internet access. Slap a wifi connection in my reader and let's go!

Oh, and I want to pay about $100 for my reader, and about $5 each for my books. I think that's reasonable. And if this $100 reader and these $5 books perform the way I envision, the ebook/reader market will blossom like a rose garden in June. Someone's going to get filthy rich when they figure it all out. I wish they'd hurry.

January round-up

We are already 1/12 of the way through 2009, which is just ridiculous. I don't feel like I accomplished anything, either.

I wrote one full-length story (on hold for the Dead Bait anthology) and one flash story (subbed to EDF).

I got one acceptance (from New Fables) and two rejections (including the 3-day novel fail).

I revised one novella and wrote a big chunk of Blood and Taxes--not sure how many words all told, but at least 25,000 and probably much more than that.

I sent out four submissions, including said novella, plus one agent query. Got a request for partial on that query a few days later, too!

I have still not heard from the agent who requested a full at the end of last August. I also haven't heard from Mundania. I killed one publisher (Trunk Novels) and haven't heard anything more about Fictitious Force, which I seem to have killed last November although it may just be a coma--their website says hiatus.

I need to write more stories, because I want to save up for an ereader. Go February!

Linklisty!

Instead of writing today, I cruised Mr. and Ms. Internets. To prove to myself that this wasn't a waste of time, here's the best of what I found in my trawl:

Leigh Dragoon's What Will Totally Happen If Gay Marriage Is Legalized
hysterically funny!

Ten Epic Fantasy Themes We Don't See Enough by N.K. Jemisin
scientific rigor, yes! If more writers wrote with this list in mind, I might be able to stomach epic fantasy again.

Booksquare's From Print to E, Some Items to Consider
and Dear Author's 10 Things Epublishers Should Do for Readers
And I know I read another article about ereaders that was great, but I didn't write down the URL and can't remember where I found it.

Oh, I almost forgot one! Scalzi's Schadenfreude Pie!

My work here is done. I had planned to go to an early Nano writer's group meeting this evening, but I forgot about it and told Mom I'd help her with some last-minute stuff--the movers are coming tomorrow.

FinePrint on eReaders

The new blog for FinePrint Lit Agency is up, and Peter Rubie has a stupendous post about ereaders and ebooks. I've read a lot of posts about the subject, but I think this is the first that nails every single concern I've had about ereaders. I'm afraid I left a slobberingly adoring comment, but I really am impressed.

I'm looking forward to the next generation of ereaders. Sony's taken a step in the right direction by making their reader DRM-free. Now they just need to drop the price so more people can afford it.

I really do predict a huge explosion in ebook sales in the next few years. All we need is a really good reader to hit the market. I want one, but it needs to be better-designed than the ones available now, and more open too.

eBook reader/Kindle roundup

Amazon has just released its new ebook reader, the Kindle. The name always makes me think of Fahrenheit 451, but maybe that's just me. Lots and lots of people are blogging about the Kindle, so I thought I'd gather up some of the best reviews or discussions of ebook readers in general and link to them for your convenience!

An excellent starting point is Booksquare. They point out many of the Kindle's shortcomings, but they also talk a bit about ebooks in general and make the link to the current writer's strike out in Hollywood. One of the things Booksquare says about the Kindle:

...the fact that this device makes Fort Knox look like an open bar really bothers me. The lack of PDF support alone should send everyone into therapy. Customers who buy the Kindle are locked into Amazon as supplier. ... There is a cumbersome process for loading your own files onto the device, but, whoo-hoo!, you get charged ten cents for the privilege.

Boing Boing feels pretty much the same way, although most of that post is simple agreement with Mark Pilgrim's post, which is itself a collection of quotes--from 1984, from the Kindle's EULA, etc. It's creepy.

BuzzMachine talks briefly about how limited the Kindle is:

The iPhone is more powerful. It gives me the ability to both buy content and see
the world of content.

The consensus so far is that Amazon has veered off the road to goodness and books, and is crashing through the undergrowth of senseless oppression. Me, I think it's mainly just stupidity and a lack of market research. I'm also amused by the customer reviews of the Kindle on the Amazon site. Out of 448 customer reviews (so far), the Kindle is barely scraping a 2.5 star review overall. To quote from a few of them:

What Amazon does not understand, is that I want something that could replace my
*laptop* so I can review work related PDF files without printing them out. I do
not want something to replace my paperback novel which is cheaper, more durable,
has infinite battery life, and I'll be able to read 20 years from now. --Alex P.
Keaton

Amazon is so focused on selling books through the device that they've
dramatically limited consumer flexibility related to other reading. --D. Solberg

Until the consumer ebook market has something that functions as a standard
format, so that I can choose the device and the content service separately, and
so that I can be assured the content I'd purchase will be readable on most
devices, I'm not interested. --Kyle Felker

Now, let's trot along to a happier place. Here we have the BAEN Free Library, where lovely ebooks abound. And they are free. The authors themselves decide if they want to offer a book for download in the free library; typically you'll only get the first book or two of a series, and if you like it, of course they hope you'll go out and buy the other books. But if you don't like it, you aren't out a single penny. And you can download the books in a myriad of software types, including RTF (rich text format) and HTML.

All this squabbling about hardware is going to be moot in another ten years. It's not going to be like the kerfuffle of VHS vs. Beta or even iPod vs. everyone else. Unlike movies and music, which have always been a little bit hard to get at, people have books readily available everywhere--to buy, loan, borrow, and receive as gifts. Even before the age of recording, people had books. But now we're being told that ebooks are somehow different, that transferring a paper book into electronic format somehow makes it more like a CD or DVD than a book.

No one buys into that. The developers of ebook readers need to realize that what readers want is a reasonably-priced reader without proprietary (and therefore limiting) format that will hold a bunch of books. Publishers need to clue in that a customer who buys an ebook should have all the same rights as a customer who buys a print book--that is, the customer can loan out or resell the copy they bought. Oh, and the ebook reader should be cute and not stupid-looking. Unlike the Kindle.

I blogged about ereaders a few times in September, here and here and here. And no, I don't know why that lolcat pic doesn't show up. Dammit.

Yet more on eReaders

I keep thinking about the perfect ereader. I think I've got it all figured out now. It needs to feel like a book as much as possible. It needs to fold!

Maybe they do, I don't know. The only pictures of ereaders I've seen, though, look more like calculators. No, a good ereader needs to open up just like a book, with two screens facing each other. The pages display on both screens, two pages at a time just like a regular book. When you're ready to turn the page, hit the button and the next two pages pop up. When you have to stop reading, hit save and close the ereader just like a book. It saves your place and turns off automatically.

Simple, effective, and closing it up means the screens will be protected from scratches.

In other news, I totally made it to my writer's group and back without getting lost once. That's the first time I've managed it.

More on eReaders

Hmm, did I really post a raw-rough scene from an unformed project last night? It appears I did. Let me just post above it in case someone wanders along and thinks I post dull, badly written crap all the time.

Well, I do, but at least it's not usually fiction.

I did some more looking into ereaders, for ebooks. (How long until sticking e- in front of a noun sounds, like, so turn of the century?) The consensus is that they're all doin' it wrong.

Pardon me while I insert a lolcat here. This one slays me.



Anyway, there's a thread on Absolute Write that talks about ereaders some (I post there--guess which post is mine! Hint: it's the wordy one.), and a post on Booksquare that goes into even more detail. It sounds like the technology is there, but the people actually developing the products are not.

That reminds me of the Asus eee PC, a darling mini-laptop computer that is almost what people want but not quite. Not to mention that the price keeps goin' up and the specs keep goin' down and the release date keeps gettin' pushed back. The eee would be perfect to use as an ereader--small, lightweight, eminently portable, with wifi and browsing capabilities to find and download books--but it's not available yet and I don't know if I'll get one until the second wave comes out next year anyway (I want a blue one; right now they're only available in black or white).

But my poor old computer needs to be replaced with a real laptop before I start buying eees or ereaders anyway. My computer was once a blazingly fast gaming machine, but it's now over five years old and starting to have problems. And I don't do any gaming anymore (except tower defense and Boggle, of course, and the Kingdom of Loathing).

I've wandered away from my original topic, I find, but let's leave it at that. I still haven't critiqued the stories for my writing group tomorrow, and I still haven't finished the story I wanted to finish for the group, and I haven't eaten yet, and anyway there's a cricket hiding in the living room driving me crazy singing. Times Square this ain't.

Books without pages

My quest to find a copy of Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman is not going well. I think I may have to order it off Amazon.

This morning I got up early because I wanted to put together a new CD, which I persist in calling a "mix tape." I downloaded a few new songs (from Napster, people, I pay for my music) and listened to them and some old favorites* on the way to work.

That made me wish I could download Soon I Will Be Invincible so easily, but my immediate answer to that thought was, "Oh, I don't want to read a book onscreen."

Why not? I had to think about it. I read my own writing onscreen all the time. But I must admit, having a printed copy makes things a lot more pleasant. It's more than just convenience, it's just easier to read a printed copy. Physically turning pages is an important part of the process of reading for me; so is the smell of ink (in newer books) and paper (in older books), and having a cover to look at whenever I want to without losing my place (because I can stick my finger between the pages while I turn the book over).

On the other hand, I remember back when music came on great big plasticky things called records, that had a lovely unique smell and a great big cover and back cover, and the sound you got from a record had an extra depth from the phsyical contact of the needle tracing over the record's grooves. But now I buy a lot of my music directly online--no records, not even a CD case to look at. I got used to the convenience pretty darn quick.

So maybe it's time to look into one of those ebook-readers. Instant gratification, that's my watchword!


*Gorillaz, Garbage, Concrete Blonde, Joe Jackson, Billy Joel, They Might Be Giants, and that new Kanye West song with the Daft Punk sample.