Category: Uncategorized

Tor Publishing Issues a 4-Month E-Book Embargo on Libraries, Cites Retail Sale Concerns

jabberwockypie:

abraxis-and-anceline:

libraryadvocates:

Several library organizations and advocacy groups, including the American Library Association and ReadersFirst, have come out against Tor’s embargo. In a phone interview with io9, ALA president Loida Garcia Febo expressed her concerns that it could mean more trouble for libraries and their relationships with publishers, taking into account how hard they had to fight to get e-book access in the first place. She also said how unfortunate it is that the embargo is targeting sci-fi and fantasy readers, given how dedicated and passionate they are about the written word.

Tor. Y’all are a bunch of idiots. Don’t do this. If I can’t get your books at the library, the I just… won’t read them at all. Unless it’s an author I already follow. I only buy books if I know I’m going to love them, which means that I have to have already read them before, or be very familiar with the author. There are TWO authors I will buy without reading first. TWO. That’s not two authors published by Tor, that’s two total.

I don’t actually know anyone, at all, that buys books without having read them first or without having read a enough books by the author to take a chance. Don’t be stupid. This will hurt your sales way more than libraries would.

Also, congrats! You just guaranteed jump in the number of people pirating your books! Way to go, that’s totally what you were aiming for, right?

That was MY first thought upon reading this.

Authors urge readers to use the library rather than pirate books if they can’t afford to buy them.

If they’re not available at the library … what’s the logic here? Does Tor REALLY think people will just go “Ah, yes, I didn’t buy these books before because the library had them. Now that’s not an option, so I’ll definitely buy them.”?

People who were going to buy the books ANYWAY will just buy them the same as before.

People who wanted them from the library will either a) not read them or b) pirate them.  Or c) just decide to wait the four months and be Really Annoyed about it.

Regardless, it’s not going to generate more sales, and it’s going to hurt authors.

It’s going to hurt libraries. If people can’t get books they want from the library because the library can’t afford the license for the book, patrons will use their libraries less, because they’ll feel like they can’t rely on their libraires to have new books or books they want to read. At a time when libraires are getting their funding slashed everywhere, when people are raising ridiculous alternatives like Amazon taking over from libraries, this will do nothing but hurt.

Tor needs to look at things like the Baen Free Library and realise that restricting access is not going to drive up sales, it’s going to drive people away. Whereas making books available in as many mediums as possible, for affordable prices, will increase visibility and profits. I can’t tell you how many new books/authors I’ve found through libraries over my lifetime, but it’s been hundreds, and the ones I really love? I BUY. And without libraries, I wouldn’t have known they existed.

Tor Publishing Issues a 4-Month E-Book Embargo on Libraries, Cites Retail Sale Concerns

navigatorsnorth:

aceasadhd:

worm:

mapsontheweb:

Thomas J. Maslen imagined a big river in the middle of Australia, 1830.

thomas j. maslen: *drawing a massive big river in the middle of his map* sick, I hope that’s real

@navigatorsnorth Nav is the government hiding a huge river from us? Nav I demand answers!

I’m not at liberty to say.

Non-Australians being shocked and confused by the ‘inland sea’ hypothesis is kind of wild to me. Most of the history of white explorers that I learnt by the age of ten was, ‘they went west/north/south and expected there to be water, there wasn’t, they died’. The idea that there was some massive body of water in the middle was incredibly pervasive, and there just wasn’t one map with a sea or river drawn like that. The closest thing we have is
Kati Thanda. It’s a salt pan which occasionally gets filled with water once in a blue moon (the birds come from hundreds of miles around when it does), but it is in NO WAY drinkable, or surrounded by bountiful, arable land like the early white people hoped. You can live in the red centre, but you have to do it lightly, knowing how to find water, what is safe to eat, and moving when you need to. That’s what the Aboriginal people did for seventy-odd thousand years, before white people came (and what many still do, when on their country/traditional lands).
If you want to know more about the inland sea theory Passing Strangeness has a good blog post here.

tricksyixi:i will absolutely take them off your hands if you turn out not to like them, i been meaning to get hardcopies forever. I am in the states tho

I will say that you probably wont like one of the main characters until halfway through the second book. It’s on purpose, and it’s necessary, but I would give it at least that long before you decide the series isn’t for you 🙂

Great, I’ll keep your name handy, then. I’ve got a bunch of other books to read first, though, so it won’t be very soon that I know whether I’m keeping them or not.

I certainly plan to read both books through before deciding. I rarely pay more than $5 for a second hand book, but I did this time, and I want my money’s worth, even if I decide they’re not for me. 🙂

[Copies of Captive Prince and Prince’s Gambit from the Captive Prince Trilogy]
So, my curiosity got the better of me. I saw these first in the Smith Family store, then a week later in my local second-hand bookstore, Elizabeth’s (someone either read fast or quickly realised their mistake and traded them in, is my guess), where they’ve been for at least three weeks. So, I gave in. Slave!fic isn’t usually my thing, but people won’t shut up about this series, and though there’s a lot more queer fiction than there used to be, beggars can’t, and all that. If it’s not to my taste, I’m sure there’ll be someone out there willing to take them off my hands. $8AUD each, which isn’t the cheapest, but a lot cheaper than if I wanted to buy new.

queencfthestarsdrfoster:

blanca-angelica-loveless:

queencfthestarsdrfoster:

blanca-angelica-loveless:

queencfthestarsdrfoster:

blanca-angelica-loveless:

queencfthestarsdrfoster:

blanca-angelica-loveless:

Okay but Ego was super impressed about hearing that Peter could hold an Infnity Stone, even for a couple minutes, and said he had to be his son, had to be a Celestia to survive that.

Well Jane was possed by one for a few day, so who the Hell is she related too?

Low-key, since she a Peter are basically the same age, I’m gonna headcanon now Ego got busy with some other Earth lady (you can say Ego loves Meredith, but I mean, cheating is a thing, and how much love do we really think that psycopathic planet really had in him). And, also, like, her mom died of cancer in the comics when she was nine, just like with Peter in the movies, I’m just saying. They’re totally half siblings, fight me.

An explanation for why Yondu didn’t go pick her up along with Peter though, is maybe he told Ego he’d only pick up one kid at a time (since Ravagers apparently aren’t even supposed to deal with kids at all), and then while he had Peter, figured out what was happening to Ego’s kids, so obviously didn’t go back to Earth at any point to have gotten her.

This theory is incredibly intriguing. Now I’m trying to remember if we ever learned anything about Jane’s father….

Only, I think, that he was friends with Selvig, and (maybe) a scientist too (in the comics he’s a plumber),

But I dont think its a stretch to imagine Jane’s mom could have thought she’d never see Ego again, and when she ended up with another guy, that guy was around for her and Jane, and became Jane’s father and who she called dad regardless of blood relation.

(Ive been thinking about this theory non-stop since I thought of it last night. Could you imagine how dumb Odin would feel realised he didn’t think a Celestial was worthy of his Son)

Considering how Odin treated his own second son and underestimated him at everything, it’s definitely not something he would have anticipated.

My goodness, does it make sense though. Jane Foster as half Celestial. I’m taking this theory now. That’s incredible. That would also make her and Peter Quill half siblings. Peter Quill would have a sister haha.

Could you imagine after everyone found out and they’re just looking between Peter and Jane like “how?”

But also, I think Jane would be the younger sister, and we know Peter’s all about Classic Family Tropes (Play catch with his dad lmao) so he’d totally be all over Thor when he finds out they used to date, like “Don’t even look at my sister dude, you lost all privilege when you broke her heart!”

“she broke up with me!”

“You abandond her to go planet hopping!”

“Because your girlfriend dad was trying to murder the universe!”

(Nebula and Loki in the back ground like “i hate this family so much”)

@mydaddywasaplanet

And to add some things:

Red skull’s, eyes as he’s disintigrated by the Space Stone: Pretty normal considering who he is.

Clint’s eyes as he’s possesed by the Mind Stone: Solid black, and then settled on an erie blue

Vision, basically the Mind Stone himself: Relatively normal eyes all things considered.

Malekith possesed by the Reality Stone: Brown, weird beatle-like reflectiveness.

Wanda, using the power obtained from the Mind Stone: only the irises change

Natasha, being possesed by the second-hand power of the mind stone: only the irises change

Jane and Peter possessed by the Reality and Power Stones: White sclera turn black, irises turn a glowy-neon.

Lots of different reactions, but Jane’s and Peter’s are the same, soooo,,,,,

Reblogging this again because Tumblr is eating posts I make recently.