Hasn't the future got Deed Poll? Mainly Ranty

[erastes]

What is it with sci-fi names? asphodeline mentioned this the other day and I admit that it's something that gets up my nose. Don't give your characters names I can't pronounce because I will skim over their name for the entire book and not empathise with them!!

Things that annoy me part 23: People who stop in the middle of an aisle in a supermarket.

I have to praise Media Fire for their swift action yesterday – I was informed that Standish was being offered free online so I asked Media Fire to take it down, and they did, within 2 hours.  Of course, the scumbag put it back up again (and if I find out that DMOONEY is anyone I know there will be trouble) almost immediately, but a swift email to Media Fire had it taken down again within 20 minutes.

While there is a limited amount we authors can do, because it’s like chopping off the hydra’s heads one at a time, we can encourage our publishers to change things, and in future I will not be handing out PDF files willy-nilly, that’s for sure.  There is no PDF file of Transgressions (well, there IS, obviously, but I don’t have one) – and while this restricts me from asking many online review sites to give a review, it’s a little bit safer as the file isn’t being sent everywhere. Of course, you can never stop anyone scanning your book in page by page and making their own PDF, but people will always find a way, in the end!

And on a not entirely unrelated note, why is it that the most opinionated people object so strongly to other people having opinions?

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Comments

[sleveen.livejournal.com]

Somebody had your book up on MediaFire?????


Point me at 'em. I'm kickin' ass and takin' names... o_O

[sleveen.livejournal.com]

why is it that the most opinionated people object so strongly to other people having opinions?

Because opinionated people feel threatened by other people's opinions if they aren't the same as their opinions...?

Ow. I think I hurt myself...

[emlynley.livejournal.com]

Great news about getting the pirated files down.
I had someone upload 4 times to 4shared. The 4th time I asked if they could ban the user. Instead they banned the file and they tried several more times buy on each link it had a notice "removed because identical to a banned file." so the hosting sites are trying to work with us and offer ways to counter repeated attempts to pirate.

At BEA last week there was a lot of talk about DRM and how making books harder for legit customers to get would hurt sales. I'm not sure I agree with that, but I do think the industry needs to figure out a better way to protect authors--and their own lost sales.

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

I'm glad they acted quick in removing the file. Was this a scanned version?

I stopped reading a book by an Icelandic author because I couldn't pronounce names/places. I should have realised this before I started reading :/

And yes, supermarket pauses. I think this annoys Dave even more because he can't get out of the way/stop suddenly.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Don't think it was scanned, I didn't look, actually - should have downloaded it, i suppose to check - but I have given PDFs of Standish out to people for review, so someone has breached my trust, and I'm not happy about that.

These people in the supermarket - argh! Wandering along in the dead centre of the aisle, and just stopping one of them peeling off and picking up from the shelf, then - when they got to the END of the ailse, they spent about 3 hours deciding whether to turn right or left!

SUPERMARKET RAGE!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

That's good about the banning step, I dare say Standish is back up there now. Of course there are lots of sites we never find because they code the author's names, but, well, we have to do something. sigh.

I think it's rubbish saying that it will lose legit customers. If the customers want the books they will buy them. They can start the process by making non-USA customers part of the process!!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It's baffling.

[sleveen.livejournal.com]

Not for me. My opinion is right. Always. 100% of the time. :-D :-D

Opinion-nation

[wordwitch.livejournal.com]

I was listening the other day to Talk Of The Nation (I think - on my iPod, anyway), and they had Mr. Savage on to discuss his banning from Great Britain. He was fierce about "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" (which is American, not British, so I don't know why he was mad at them) - and the minute a caller asked about the content of his speech, Mr. Savage called him a pajama-wearing mental health patient, and hung up.

Case in point.

They cannot afford to hear disagreement. Their mental health, I believe, depends on their construct of reality being the only valid one, and to hear another is to allow the possibility of its correctness.

I grew up with this ...

[sleveen.livejournal.com]

Things that annoy me part 23: People who stop in the middle of an aisle in a supermarket.

And people who, when they are in line behind you at the checkout counter, keep bumping you with their trolley. I was thisclose once to turning around to these two young shitheads and saying "Bump me with that ONE MORE TIME..."

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I started a new supermarket game. I pick up something I don't want and put it into the person in front shopping on the belt. *evil erastes*

Such pleasure, such small badness.

Re: Opinion-nation

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of like, well, its your opinion but you must allow me to have the opinion that you are an arse! I'm so glad I never heard of Savage until a few days ago!

[sleveen.livejournal.com]

BWAHAHHAHAHAH!

I love you. You are such an evil bitch. :D

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

*gaffaw*

...something nortily embarrasing like ... haemorrhoid cream!

Re: Opinion-nation

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

I read this whole comment thinking you were talking about Dan Savage (http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=1634711), and felt very confused and disappointed. Then I realized you must be talking about that right-wing radio guy, and felt better.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

What, in your eyes, renders a name unpronounceable? One of my ongoing products has characters of distinct Middle Eastern heritage, and quite a few people would consider their names and their significant linguistic holdovers unpronounceable.

^ has a project going along those lines...

Re: Opinion-nation

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

I thought "I disapprove..but will defend" was from Voltaire, but various quote-sites say it was from a book about Voltaire, describing his philosophy.

Yeah, I grew up with the Catholic "condemned" list of books that were other than propaganda. It's sheer fear -- if people hear other ideas, they may not swallow the opinion being shoved down their throats. I have strong opinions and will argue them (endlessly) but expect everyone to agree? Not. A. Chance.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Oh, ghod, "alien" names. I sympathize with the effort to give non-human characters alien names--there are certainly enough Earth-based languages that are very different from English--but there's really no reason (unless the aliens have beaks or really alien speaking apparatus) that the names can't be pronouncable. Covers are usually outside the author's control, but titles...I've passed on a number of books when the title character sounded like an physical affliction.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

it's pretty difficult to say, and I hesitate to name characters' names because it will sound like I'm picking on one particular author, but hyphens, apostrophes and glottal stops are pretty hard - obviously for those who can already do a glottal stop this won't be hard. Also lack of vowels and a preponderance of ys, zs and xs.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

And surely any translation software worth its salt in the future would be able to recognise that the name means "son of red beak" or "man from the island on Venus just south of the biggest island" rather than Xxiisssp and Yy'oopp

[asphodeline.livejournal.com]

You've pinpointed precisely what it is that really makes bizarre names so annoying and that is the unpronouncability and inevitable skimming over of the name and character.
The more such names there are in any given story, the more likely a reader is to switch off altogether.

[enolabloodygay.livejournal.com]

1 Opinionated people have no problem with other people having an opinion. As long as it is the same as theirs.

2 I have actually failed to read past the first half page of an Anne McCaffrey novel (admittedly written in conjunction with another author who I have never heard of) because, although I could pronounce the characters names, there were 14 words (yes,I counted) that had been invented to replace words like home, field, family or clan. And they were printed in italics, just in case I had missed the fact they were made-up words. I like Anne McCaffrey's writing, maybe it was just her co-author or her editors, but it still put me off reading it.

3 There are placenames in Australia and New Zealand that seem unnecessarily long winded to me (remember that 70's song?) but evolved as a result of the language the people used. I find it easier to cope with that than Xrslpt or Jklha though.

4 I find saying loudly, but politely, 'Excuse me, can I get past without diturbing your trolley?' usually shames most people into behaving with consideration for the rest of that visit to the supermarket, at least.

5 On a totally unrelated topic, I watched Stephen Fry on a programme called something like 'Guilty Pleasures' admit to loving Georgette Heyer novels, just like me. I thought of you as he said it.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Good point, i don't mind made up words, but not tub thumpingly italicised!!

You are more polite than me. I find a sharp shove in the calves works just as well.

One day i will be a guilty pleasure!! :D Thanks, hun!

[kopernik.livejournal.com]

I think it's rubbish saying that it will lose legit customers

If you're talking about DRM, I can tell you for a fact that I don't buy protected music and I don't buy protected ebooks.

So, yes, I am a legit customer that will go back to strictly reading fanfic and printed books rather than go that route. I can't speak for anyone else.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

May I ask why you don't?

[kopernik.livejournal.com]

I once read an article about DRM that included what the author called an esoteric point, but it comes closest to the crux of the problem for me: Someone else is dictating what I can and can't do with something that I've legally purchased. Call me stubborn but that is something I can't swallow.

To use a hackneyed phrase, I think publishers need to think outside the box. There is a solution out there, but it isn't DRM, at least in its current form. For example, NBC, instead of just trying to clamp down on filesharing of tv shows, launched Hulu, where people can watch free for a limited time and the network makes money from the advertising. For reasons I won't go into, even though I have cable, I have to watch the vast majority of my shows online, and since Hulu started, well, I hardly ever go to filesharing sites anymore, which is a huge relief to me. And I've discovered shows at Hulu that I wouldn't have otherwise, and have bought DVDs because of it. Obviously books are very different from television, but it's that sort of fresh approach that is needed here, in my opinion.