Michael, Brian and Michael roll with the flow from this week’s extra-long A-show, and in avoiding any final comments (for now) on the e-book discussion, they touch on the interaction between authors and their readers.
Interview: This week, Justin Gustainis joins us to chat about his new dark fantasy novel Black Magic Woman. He tells us about Quincey Morris and Libby Chastain, and the investigation of an ancient curse on a family, and the larger scope that the story takes on as it progresses.
We talk about crafting a story of this type, and writing the types of stories he enjoys reading, some of his other story influences and more.
And yes, Summer did think this is a book worth staying up until 3am to finish.
Listener Review: Princess Eve gives us a review of the audiobook version of Orson Scott Card’s Empire.
Don’t forget, you can also comment on books listed in The Library… look through the listings and feel free to post your thoughts and comments there.
Submitting Listener comments: If you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know!
Author Website: Justin Gustainis
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iTunes: Leave a Review!
I totally agree that online pdf-format fiction should be sold at a low price. I see that Mike Stackpole sells short fiction on stormwolf.com at $2 per story. This seems fair and works out really well for Mike as, from what he said in this show, he could expect less profit per sale from a whole printed anthology of short stories. I’m looking forward to seeing how much he plans to sell a novel for.
I like that the reader can buy more for their money by cutting out the middle-man, the publisher. One concern I do have though is this: How can the consumer get an assurance of quality when an authour sell his own work? I guess that comes over time with user-feedback and experience.
If I didn’t know or trust an authour I’d prefer to buy e-books from sites like amazon or a publisher’s own website – depending on the price – which, for me, would give the books sold there a stamp of approval. The buyer would know that the books would have to be properly edited and have passed through the regular sanity-checks — a standard professional process — before being released to the public. Another option would be for authours to provide free samples.
I fear it would be all to easy for an authour to turn around and say, “Yeah, the book has typos and editing problems, but what do you expect for $2?”
Also, while I’m keenly following the changes in the book-publishing industry and looking forward to the e-book revolution, I still think that there is something inherently more valuable in a printed book. Perhaps this is because I am used to paper books, or because I can’t afford a good e-book reader. I want one, but perhaps the majority of readers only read occasionally and can’t justify the initial outlay. Perhaps all these things will change with time. Perhaps the only question is, how much time?
Hrmm, something up with Dragon Page feeds at the moment? I can’t get 305a or 305b from iTunes, and I can’t get an earlier one I missed either (304a).
Adam
Knanshon says: My comments above were for show #305A, I hadn’t realised the link had changed to show B. Like Ian in BC, I cannot download show B yet.
C2C seems to be a little bit like waiting for a bus this week; none for ages and then two show up at once. I guess there’s a post-processing delay between the recording date and the date each show is posted up to the site and added to the feed. I’m just too eager!
I can’t get it to dowload either. Heck, it seems like frnakly iTunes doesn’t even try. I click Get and it goes straight to the black exclamation point as if to say “No Dragon Page for you! One year!”
Hurrah! All systems go now… just downloaded the show. Comments to follow after I get back from a weeks holiday in Lanzarote, by which point I hope to have finally listened my way up to date with Scott Sigler’s Nocturnal and have room on my baby iPod Shuffle for the next two shows…
Hi Guys
I found this amazing link on ebookreaders:
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_Reader_Matrix