Showing posts with label opinion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label opinion. Show all posts
Thoughts On DRM
First off, a quick explanation. DRM stands for digital rights management, which is encoding placed on a digital file that locks it for use on certain platforms or a certain number of accesses. So for a more specific industry example, a Nook book I buy could probably not be loaded to my Kindle. I can only read it on registered Nook apps and devices. In some cases, I might only be able to access the item on a certain number of devices.
The frustrations and impracticalities of this should be apparent from the start. When you purchase a DRMed ebook, you're not really buying the book in the traditional sense - you're buying the license to use the book. This means you don't actually own that book - the company you purchased it from does. This means you can't take a book you legally purchased and read it on another device. I recently moved from using a Kindle to a Nook, and I was faced with the choice of either breaking the law by stripping the DRM from the Kindle books I'd bought or abandoning my bought-and-paid-for Kindle library. It also means that if your Amazon account gets banned, your Kindle becomes an expensive paperweight. And what about that one time Amazon actually removed books customers had legitimately purchased from their libraries (fortunately, that move was for legitimate reasons and Amazon claims to have learned their lesson, but it doesn't stop the possibility of something similar happening again)? Here's another consideration: what if the company from which you've purchased the ebook goes under, like when Sony closed their (sizable) ebook store? Fortunately, companies realize this and have so far made deals to migrate user libraries to other retailers.
So you're probably thinking, "But I don't want people to pirate my books!" And that's a good point. No author doesn't want to receive payment for his or her work. But here's the problem: DRM only punishes customers. For so long the media industry has counted every illegal download as a lost sale, when in reality many of those downloads were by people who were never going to buy it in the first place. And there are more legitimate ways to combat the try-before-they-buy people, such as offering the first book of a series for free or generous sampling. Indie authors especially have more to worry about from lack of exposure than from digital piracy. Even big publishers, like TOR, have gone DRM-free - and the move has been hailed as a step forward.
But does DRM fight piracy? I'm pretty sure it doesn't. Hackers strip DRM from files with relative ease and sometimes just because they can. Unfortunately I can't find a link to it anymore, but I distinctly remember reading about an indie developer who released two versions of their game as an experiment: one with DRM and the other without. Apparently, it was the one locked with DRM that appeared on torrent sites.
As an historian, I also feel for future historians, who might not be able to access certain files because the devices that can read them are long gone. Another reason I think DRM is losing its worth is the continued globalization of our society - it no longer makes much sense to restrict media to one region alone.
So I encourage all of you to think twice before selecting the "Enable DRM" option when publishing your next book on Amazon. Do what you think is best, but I can assure you, all of my works have been and will continue to be published sans DRM.
On Depictions of Abuse in Fiction
Labels:
abuse,
author advice,
book authors,
child abuse,
creative writing,
emotional abuse,
fiction,
opinion,
physical abuse,
sexual abuse
·
This disturbed me for a number of reasons, but first and foremost, the astounding number of people (including people who knew abuse survivors) stating that they would never read such a thing, that the subject matter was appalling, and even that it shouldn't be written. This type of attitude, this silence about such a horrific yet important issue, only makes the problem worse.
Child abuse is a subject commonly depicted in my works, because I feel the greatest sorrow in my very soul for human beings who have had to go through such deep pain. I have been fortunate to never have it happen to me, but I know several people who have. It is an issue that is dear to my heart and I truly want to gain support and understanding for victims by depicting abuse and its life-destroying consequences in my fiction.
So when people act as if this kind of subject matter shouldn't even be brought up, I get a little upset. Fiction is meant to challenge us, and no, it's not always rosy or easy to read. But without it, we're never going to grow as a society and rally together against all of the horrible things that happen behind closed doors. People in abusive relationships sometimes don't even recognize the abuse for what it is, and instead of remaining silent about it, we need to scream loud and clear, though our fiction and otherwise, that these things are not okay. And sometimes, yes, this involves details you probably don't want to know. If making our readers feel and see the pain of these fictional characters helps even one real life person, and we have to share descriptions not everyone wants to read, so be it. After all, for real victims, there are no scene changes or time jumps.
Now obviously, I am not referring to any abuse written in an obviously salacious way (that's beyond disgusting), or if the abuse is simply used for shock value. While it is never a good idea to make an abusive experience practically the sole trait of a character (because, hello, it's not), keep in mind that this might be the result of an inexperienced or mediocre writer with good intentions even if the execution fell short. Also, while I'm not the biggest fan of trigger warnings, if your book contains scenes of detailed abuse or its aftermath, you owe it to your readers to slap a warning label on it.
What do you all think? Speak in the comments!
Why I Raised the Prices On My Ebooks
Here's the problem: it didn't work for me, and I'm starting to think it's not an approach that will work well for other authors either, in the long run.
A quick story, and raise your hand if you've had a similar experience: When I got my new NOOK, I started looking at the free ebooks on Smashwords to buff up my library. I also purchased a few books by traditionally published authors as well. Can you guess which ones I actually got around to reading?
I think readers are running into this problem more and more these days, because there is such a glut of low-cost ebooks available that by pricing our books low or free, we are having to fight harder and harder to gain an audience and, more importantly, keep their attention. I think we, as authors, would do better to price our books more as if they were released by a traditional publisher (that being said, I wouldn't ever exceed $10 for an ebook). This is especially important for self-published authors who do view themselves as professionals and desire their peers and their audience to do so as well.
The major advantage of this pricing method (besides more money per sale, obviously) is the fact that it doesn't scream self-published author. I love self-publishing and I think it is one of the best things to happen to the publishing industry, but the negative stigma is still very visible and very much there. A higher price tag sends your readers a message: that you are a professional, that you expect them to spend this kind of money on your product because it is worth it. It also makes your book look as though it was professionally published, which might help it catch the attention of readers who avoid self-published books for the aforementioned reasons. And, readers are more likely to invest the time to read your book after they have spent money on it.
The jury is still out on whether or not this new pricing model will work for my books, but I personally feel a lot better about it. I feel more professional, and I think my books seem that way too. What better message can you send to your readers to help them gain trust in how serious you are about your craft?
Agree? Disagree? Where has your "sweet spot" price been for ebooks, as both a reader and a writer? I look forward to hearing from you!
Thoughts on Star Trek Into Darkness
Labels:
khan,
Khan Noonien Singh,
opinion,
racism,
star trek,
star trek into darkness,
whitewashing
·
I've been a Star Trek fan since I was ten years old, and I've had mixed feelings about the reboot ever since the first film came out. I liked it when I saw it in theaters but my opinion degraded over time. It just didn't feel like a Star Trek film. A great Hollywood sci-fi action film? Yes. A great Star Trek movie? Hardly.
So now to the rebuttals of common criticisms of the film:
Khan's whiteness makes more than perfect sense in context (apparently they even clarified it in a tie-in comic). I adored the characterization of Khan and Cumberbatch's performance and found myself rooting for him for most of the movie (he really only does one thing that is entirely inexcusable). I still don't see a reason why the villain of this film couldn't have been a contemporary of Khan's (another warlord from the Eugenics Wars) instead of Khan himself, but whatever.
After seeing the film, I may not fully agree with making Khan white, but I certainly understand why that choice was made. Back when TOS was airing, the idea of the perfect human being brown was novel and groundbreaking. But we now live in a world where showing a brown man perform acts of terrorism just perpetrates negative stereotypes, no matter the history of the franchise or the character.
Even the ending both made sense (people say it came out of nowhere but there was another huge piece of foreshadowing I think everyone missed...) and was emotionally resonant, if not original.
Pretty much the only thing I didn't like was the lack of originality - it did feel like they were trying to remake Wrath of Khan. But that was pretty much it - I now have much higher hopes for the next film.
Violence in Children's Books
(That being said, I'm not opposed to violence in fiction, even children's fiction. Kids are more mature than a lot of us give them credit for. I'm just pointing this all out. I personally think violence is only an issue when it's glorified.)
But it continues to astound me how much of an emphasis our society places on visual fiction versus written fiction and the different standards for each. Minors can't buy an R-Rated movie but anyone can buy a romance novel with explicit sex scenes at Wal-Mart. And who can forget all the hullabaloo about minors being able to buy Fifty Shades of Grey, no questions asked?
And then there's the odd world of children's books. I've mostly noticed this in the genre of animal fiction (which has steadily gained in popularity over the last six years or so) that scenes and actions depicting pretty graphic violence are oddly enough the norm. Scenes that would never be put in an animated kids' cartoon, no matter how old the target audience might be, are rather prevalent in books.
Case in point? Scourge's murder of Tigerstar in Warriors, the rather graphic deceptions of injury and illness in The Guardian Herd, and the cruelty and horrible ways dragons die in Wings of Fire.
My guess? I think we, as a society, place a higher intellectual value on reading. If you read a lot, you're smart right? By extension, this means you might be mature enough to handle reading about a cat getting eviscerated. (Whether or not this is true.) Another explanation might be because these books depict animals harming one another, and not humans doing the same things.
Agree? Disagree? Thoughts? Comment!
On Young Adult
Labels:
fiction,
opinion,
young adult
·
Twilight really started it all. The two series I would classify as “blockbuster” that came before it were Harry Potter and the Inheritance Cycle, both of which are classified as Children’s. It was the popularity of Twilight that spawned a slew of imitators that seem to have jump-started the more commercial aspects of modern YA.
Next came The Hunger Games, which set off another wave in the YA world. Whereas Twilight had spawned a bunch of paranormal romance imitators, The Hunger Games made dystopian fiction the “in” thing. Some of its followers, including as a prominent example the Divergent series by Veronica Roth, went on to be extremely popular on their own.
Even more traditional YA literary fiction has seen growth, as evidenced by the success of The Fault in Our Stars, which doesn’t have vampires or dragons but instead is more literary fiction that deals with teenagers battling cancer.
As for what genre is going to be “in” next, I don’t know. Personally, I’m hoping it’s space opera or high fantasy, but I guess only time will tell.
YA is an interesting thing because it can be hard to classify. After all, what makes a YA book different from adult or children’s books? And what about that New Adult genre that publishers have been courting as of late? There’s also the fact that many, many adults love reading Young Adult books, and so there is definitely an audience outside the intended one.
As for me personally, I do enjoy the occasional Young Adult book every now and then. Imagine Someday was actually originally meant to BE a YA novel before I decided I wanted to take it in a more New Adult direction. However, as I’ve changed from a teenager to an adult I find most YA novels to be too simplistic for my tastes. I think part of this has to do with the fact that I no longer really relate to the problems teenagers do since I’m not a teenager anymore, but I don’t know. Either way, the genre isn’t my favorite, but it can still be a lot of fun.
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