Captain's Blog

Captain's Blog http://critique.org/c/blog Musings on writing, publishing, critiquing, life, &c. en-us Copyright 2011, Andrew Burt Tue Dec 20 07:41:13 2011 Andrew Burt - http://critique.org Andrew Burt - http://critique.org Writing, Publishing, Critiquing, Life, Misc. 1901-01-01T00:00+00:00 1 daily Critique.org http://critters.org/critters_ad1-468x60.jpg http://critique.org Aburt Solved! How to keep your facebook sorted by "Recent Stories First" http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111220073611 Several people shared my complaint, so I'm happy to make this Public Service Announcement: How to keep your fb sorted by "Recent Stories First". I posted on fb the other day how annoying it was that after I changed my fb sort order to "Recent storeis first" fb kept reseting my sort order back to "Highlighted stories" and I had to change it every dang day. Well, heh, after a little skulking around I found a solution to make "Recent first" stick. What I did was change my bookmark to http://www.facebook.com/?sk=h_chr . The key is that "?sk=h_chr" at the end of it. That's apparently the magic code that tells fb to sort by recent first. I've used that as my link for several days now and voila! it's kept it sorted by recent-first. Hurrah! <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111220073611#comments'>[Comments]</a><a href='http://www.amazon.com/Congestion-ebook/dp/B004D4YL7C'> Check out one of aburt's ebooks <img border=0 src='http://aburt.com/fiction/ad/mkad.php?t=Congestion&c=congestion.jpg&k=1'></a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-12-20T07:36:11+05:00 Ben Bova's THE CRAFT OF WRITING SCIENCE FICTION THAT SELLS is out from ReAnimus Press http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111216093219 This is one of the books I found really helpful when I was starting out so I'm happy we get to publish the ebook of it at ReAnimus Press. It's at: <a href="http://reanimus.com/store/?item=1144">http://reanimus.com/store/?item=1144</a> and also <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Craft-Writing-Science-Fiction-ebook/dp/B006MAZPEI/">on Amazon</a>. <img border="0" width="150" height="200" align="left" src="http://reanimus.com/store/covers/1144.sml.jpg" alt=""> Ben won the Best Editor Hugo award six times and is a bestselling author, so he really knows what works. I highly recommend this one for anyone writing science fiction (or any kind of fiction) who wants to take their writing to the next level. <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111216093219#comments'>[Comments]</a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-12-16T09:32:19+05:00 What could B&N, Smashwords, etc. do better? Share your ideas... http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111211075147 Over on the Huffington Post, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-coker/amazon-ebooks-kdp-select_b_1139260.html">Mark Coker of Smashwords lambastes Amazon</a> for their anti-competitive moves surrounding the recent "KDP Select" program, whereby Amazon gets exclusivity for ebooks in exchange for an unknown share of a $500,000/month pie. His points that this is an anti-competitive move are on-target; it is, and probably should be investigated as such. However, it begs what seems to me to be the real issue today: That Amazon doesn't need to ask for exclusivity, because they already have the lion's share of sales, and thus the real concern here is that B&N, Smashwords, Apple, Sony, etc. aren't a much higher share of ebook sales. A Goldman Sachs report indicated B&N was half the market share of Amazon, at 27% vs. 58% — yet anecdotes from many pro authors are that it's nowhere near this high, and more like a 10:1 ratio at best between Amazon and B&N. That's a terrible shame — it would be awesome if B&N sales were half of Amazon's! — but they aren't, so it leads to the question: What could B&N, Smashwords, or those others do better? I have to ascribe a large chunk of failure to the other players for not being adequately competitive. I'm not defending Amazon — I love competition — I'm bemoaning that the other distributors don't have the knack that Amazon does for selling ebooks. Amazon appears to have put a lot of (successful) effort into selling not just bestsellers but books from indie and midlist authors. So what could they do better to sell more of your ebooks? Perhaps if we compile a list we can submit it; I'm sure Mark at Smashwords would be receptive at least, even if we couldn't reach anyone at B&N. So let's critique B&N and Smashwords as examples of what they could improve. Share your thoughts/ideas/critiques at: <a href="http://newnewforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=1514">http://newnewforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=1514</a> (which is also gatewayed to the sff.net Critters newsgroup under the same Subject line as this post, so posts to either place are equivalent.) <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111211075147#comments'>[Comments]</a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-12-11T07:51:47+05:00 Five review copies of A Private Mutiny and Side Effects available - email me if you're interested http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111210103213 I've got five review copies available of my latest ebook, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006JSTO9U">A Private Mutiny</a> and five ebook review copies of Harvey Jacobs' latest novel from ReAnimus Press, <a href="http://reanimus.com/store/?item=1087">Side Effects.</a> In exchange you'd post your unbiased review on Amazon and on your own blog. Email me if you'd like one or both. <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111210103213#comments'>[Comments]</a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-12-10T10:32:13+05:00 A Private Mutiny, Ben Bova's Latest Ebook, and Amazon http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111209093346 Things have been busy around here, so this is really three topics at once. :) <a target=_blank href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006JSTO9U"> <img border="0" align="left" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515JYVpbuoL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_AA278_PIkin4,BottomRight,-46,22_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" alt=""> </a> Topic#1... Another of my ebooks of my own has gone live! Woohoo! — A Private Mutiny is available from Amazon at: <a target=_blank href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006JSTO9U">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006JSTO9U</a> It's the story of a group of colonists heading for the promised land of a new planet... crammed into a beat-to-hell freighter turned plague ship. :) This was originally published in the (pro-rate-paying but all too shortlived) Oceans of the Mind. It has a cool cover from <a target=_blank href="http://www.happygothproductions.com/">Melissa Lytton.</a> I'm also experimenting by putting it in the Amazon lending library — but that's topic #3 below. Anyway, check it out... I hope you enjoy it! <a target=_blank href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0066DIKPM"> <img border="0" align="left" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qadRXv-rL._AA115_.jpg" alt=""> </a> Topic#2... Ben Bova's latest ebook is now out! It's <a target=_blank href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0066DIKPM">The Dueling Machine</a>, about virtual reality warfare. Cool topic and a fun book! I also loved the cover by <a target=_blank href="http://claygraphics.phase2.net/">Clay Hagebusch</a> so I want to give a shout out to him. Topic#3... Amazon's Lending Library. I've decided to dip a toe in the water and see how it works with a couple titles. They say there's a $500,000 pie that will be shared with all authors in the program, so my guess is I'll end up with like 50¢ :) but it's worth a try. I've put up A Private Mutiny as mentioned in Topic#1, and two ReAnimus Press titles that should be selling waaaay better than they are because they're really good books. So if you're of a mind, you might borrow one of the titles. They are: <a target=_blank href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006JSTO9U">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006JSTO9U - A Private Mutiny</a> <a target=_blank href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006H9HU5Q">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006H9HU5Q - Biff America: Steep, Deep, and Dyslexic</a> <a target=_blank href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060PZ5TA">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060PZ5TA - American Goliath</a> Soooo do check those out. (Heh heh, "check them out"...literally.) :) :) While we're on the topic of Amazon and the library [and thus beings Writerly SubTopic#3A, of interest only to authors], I'm aware of at least four Amazon lending programs — you need a scorecard to keep these things straight. Each has potential advantages and disadvantages for authors. So for today's too-long-post, I'll just start with trying to sort them out for you. Here's what I think we've got: 1. The Kindle Lending Library — kindle owners can loan out a book they bought to one other kindle owner for 14 days, once ever per book. All KDP books at the 70% royalty level are mandatorily included in this program; 35% titles get a choice. This seems fairly harmless, except for the clause in the agreement that says Amazon can change it any time they want to be anything they want. Then there's the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, which seems to have three (at least) different entry paths / contracts: 2. KDP Select, announced today, allowing KDP titles a slice of a $500k/month pie based on your share of the number of borrows. As I read the agreement, you commit to 90 day terms in the program, during which you grant Amazon exclusivity. Can't sell it even on your own web site. But you get the dubious capability of making your book free to all buyers for 5 days of those 90. (I gather people complained they wanted some way to mark a book free, and this was the odd scheme they came up with.) 3. K.O.L.L. + "Author gets paid for every copy borrowed", as was announced a few weeks back, kicked off this thread, and which could be a really bad deal for authors, depending on exactly what the contract says... but nobody I've asked seems to have a copy of this agreement. It's unclear, without seeing the contract, if the author can ever actually disengage from this program, or if copies sold into it remain there in perpetuity, under ever-changeable terms. This is the kind of thing SFWA should get involved in, as a helpful thing to members and all writers. I've nudged, but not much motion as yet. 4. K.O.L.L. + "Some publishers agreed to share a pool of money somehow"... This sounds similar to #2 but for bigger publishers, and which raises questions about whether the publishers have the authority to agree to that and how authors would get paid fairly. Again, something SFWA ought to be looking into, since it offers insight into Amazon's strategic thinking and future directions. Next up: Alec Baldwin thrown off a plane because he just can't stop reading the book he borrowed from the Kindle Lending LibraryTM on his new Kindle FireTM from Amazon.com. :) <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111209093346#comments'>[Comments]</a><a href='http://www.amazon.com/Privacy-Most-Public-ebook/dp/B004D4YNK2'> Check out one of aburt's ebooks <img border=0 src='http://aburt.com/fiction/ad/mkad.php?t=Privacy Most Public&c=privacy.jpg&k=1'></a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-12-09T09:33:46+05:00 Meet Biff America http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111203081652 W00t! One of the coolest parts of this ebook publishing thing I'm doing is that I get to publish people and books that I personally think are great. Like Biff America, who's one of my favorite columnists. He's definitely not well known enough. Biff America is the stage name of a local newspaper columnist I've read for years now, Jeffrey Bergeron. I always look forward to Biff's column each week. He's a cross between Andy Rooney and Garrison Keillor / Lake Wobegon. He's a successful standup comedian and a poignant, funny writer. He takes honest looks at the human condition, his own faults, he's a bit ribald, and always makes you think. I think he's one of the best columnists out there (but as he says, he'd rather play than work). So, I hunted him down and threatened to put him in the comfy chair if he wouldn't let me publish an ebook of his book, BIFF AMERICA: STEEP, DEEP, AND DYSLEXIC. I finally wrestled him off his bicycle long enough to relent to my wiles, so here it is! You can grab it from the ReAnimus Press store at <a href="http://reanimus.com/store/?item=1135">ReAnimus.com/store/?item=1135</a> or from Amazon at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006H9HU5Q">Amazon.com/dp/B006H9HU5Q</a> (or from <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/110454">Smashwords</a>). The book is illustrated with Biff in action, and with an introduction by John Nichols, author of the Milagro Beanfield War. It's received great reviews from places and people like NBC, the Denver Post, Saturday Night Live cast member Rachel Dratch, and some guy named Brad Pitt. As John Nichols writes in the introduction, "I found myself repeatedly moved, and moved deeply, by these poignant and funny stories." I really like Biff's work. It's cool that I get to publish it. I really think you'll like it too. (Okay, far-right Republicans, probably not as much... but then again, the NBC review said, "George W. Bush should read this book," so yeah, you too!) :) <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111203081652#comments'>[Comments]</a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-12-03T08:16:52+05:00 20% off Bova, Silverberg, Spinrad - everything in the ReAnimus Store http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111126071851 Hey, my loyal blog readers! ReAnimus Press is offering a 20% coupon for everything in the store, your whole order, using coupon code "ra20". There's Ben Bova's most sought after novel, THE STAR CONQUERORS, plus several others of his, like THE EXILES TRILOGY and his virtual realty novel, THE DEULING MACHINE. There's Robert Silverberg's Hugo and Nebula finalist, SHADRACH IN THE FURNACE. There's the novel that TIME Magazine called "inspired" and Kirkus Reviews called "A masterpiece... arguably the year's best novel" -- AMERICAN GOLIATH by Harvey Jacobs (and his hilarious SIDE EFFECTS also -- think Vonnegut meets Catch-22). The (in)famous BUG JACK BARRON from Norman Spinrad... There's the music industry busting memoir of Motown #1 hit singer Charlene, I'VE NEVER BEEN TO ME, and her cute children's book, THE LIFE AND TAILS OF HERMAN THE WORM. Plus lots more... So 20% off just for you, through the end of Cyber Monday. These are DRM-free so they make great gifts too. Happy reading! (As a small business, we could sure use your help spreading the word. So do feel free to share this code on fb, deal web sites like slickdeals, fatwallet, or anywhere. Thanks!) <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111126071851#comments'>[Comments]</a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-11-26T07:18:51+05:00 Are We Beginning to Enter a Post-Capitalism Era? http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111122085839 This isn't a political post (though the impacts of the matter would bring plenty of upheaval to political matters). This is more of a speculation-about-trends what's-coming-in-the-future kind of blog entry. Almost (but not quite) verging on a "singularity is approaching" sort of discussion — but more in that vein than politics of the day. So: Are we on a "post-capitalism" path where technology is providing an ever-increasing quality of life, even as the need for people to "work" decreases? (Bearing in mind the road to get there would be bumpy, as we're seeing.) We've undeniably had a huge economic upheaval the last few years, but what's struck me, as a science fiction writer and observer of interesting trends, is that generally people in the US are finding ways to make it through, compared to how it would have gone with similar crises in the past. By that I mean there aren't huge masses of people without a warm roof over their head, or starving, or wearing tattered clothing. (There are some homeless people living on the streets, but not a large percent of the population; and studies seem to indicate many of them are mentally ill, so the failure there seems more one of not helping the mentally ill than a failure in helping them financially.) Many people are uncomfortable, under stress, and in positions of it being hard (but just barely doable) to make ends meet, and of having no cushion for emergencies. But even when such emergencies do strike, they're still generally finding ways to struggle through. While there are a great number who don't have jobs or aren't in the jobs they'd like, the minimum "social safety net" systems seem to be generally performing with sufficient funding input from those who are earning more. Wait one sec: Perhaps instead of "Sufficient funding input" I should say near sufficient input, since we're running up the deficit, but there are viable ways to pay that down, whether by raising taxes or cutting spending — nobody seems to be saying there's no way to solve the deficit issue, just arguments about which way to do it. So in that sense — and this is fundamental to the point I'm getting toward — there's enough money floating around in the system that we can take care of everybody, such that most people in the US can live a minimally comfortable life. Certainly it could be more comfortable! I'm just looking at the comparisons to, say, 2000 years ago near the peak of the Roman empire, or even 100 years ago, 1912. Perhaps even 50 years ago, 1962. You don't hear large number of people saying, "Oh my God, I lost my job and now I'm living on the streets and starving." Things can certainly be better — and I hope they'll get better for everyone! — but my science-fictional-trend point here is that it seems like we're almost moving past our version of capitalism toward a form of society where the basic needs are met for everyone, including a number of what would be amazing luxuries to people of the past. Use of cell phones, the Internet, cable TV, and other measures of "why I'd rather live in 2012 than in 1912" show that, even in the midst of a massive economic crisis, people are still muddling through. (Whereas in times past, more people might well die as a result of the same economic shock. And even in the midst of this, we're working on instituting more health care availability for all — i.e. rather than less.) So I'm not saying people aren't suffering, but, put in perspective of the past, we've come a long way. What I'm wondering is where we're headed, since that trend seems to be continuing. Are we nearing an era where the basic needs are available to all, with essentially minimal work needed to provide them? Many people today seem to be in jobs that aren't necessary to the survival of civilization, or even their own survival. Unemployment is "high," around 9%, and yet even among those 9%, living conditions aren't life-threatening, and are better in many ways than the wealthiest had in 1912. That is to say: Are we on a path where technology is providing an ever-increasing quality of life, even as the need for people to "work" decreases? In other words, what if "9%" unemployment is (or could soon be) a "new normal"? Or an even higher rate. The need for money seems to be decreasing somewhat, compared to the past. Efficiencies and advances in technology seem to be providing more — and both causing people to need fewer jobs (i.e., causing unemployment, replacing workers with automation), while at the same time providing the necessities so that few people are starving or freezing to death. That would be bad for "capitalism" as we now know it. Capitalism depends on the flow of money. Neither too slow (as now) nor too fast. But are we heading for — clearly we're not there, so this is a question of trends — are we heading for a time when the basics are provided to all, essentially without having to work for them, as well as a number of what I guess would be called "luxuries" like mobile communications, the (future) Internet, etc. Isn't that what utopians have always dreamt of? That people wouldn't have to toil to survive, but would have the basics available for no or minimal work, the rest of one's time available for the typical utopian dreams of leisure, creating art, literature, philosophical systems, etc. (I.e., on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, "self-actualization" as opposed to basic survival and security needs.) You wouldn't especially need "capitalism" in a world where the survival/security needs were met with minimal work. You would have what we today would call "high unemployment." If we are on such a path, then problems like high unemployment today might be more difficult problems to "treat." In some sense that's already true: Because of automation we don't need as many workers, thus there are fewer jobs available. (One random example would be how email and the Internet are largely killing off the post office, and thus the need for as many postal workers sorting and delivering mail daily. There's still a need for delivering things like packages — and the post office is often cheaper than UPS or FedEx — but delivering a few bits of junk mail daily seems less necessary. Automation would essentially be the root cause as those postal workers jobs are no longer needed.) We aren't inventing as many new kinds of jobs (e.g. Google tech-support — oh, wait, they don't really have any), and many we are inventing require more skill but are less in widespread demand (e.g. web site developer; even they are being replaced by automated tools and the migration of people's web presence to prebuilt sites like Facebook rather than personal web sites). That suggests there will be increasing pressure for society (aka the government) to provide more minimum "safety net" services (the efforts toward health care reform is an example of that kind of pressure). In the long term, that's basically a move away from capitalism, since there's less urgent need for money. That is, if basic needs become more or less assured to be met, the role of money for individuals becomes more for discretionary spending. And that, as is my whole point here, diminishes the role of capitalism, and enters a sort of "post-capitalism" era. So I've just been wondering if we're on the path toward that. We're certainly not there, don't get me wrong. Just wondering if some of the things happening are portents of that. It could be quite interesting if so. My hunch says that it would be better at the end of the road, but a lot of upheaval and stress on the way. Anyway, enough random musings for the day. Back to work. :) <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111122085839#comments'>[Comments]</a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-11-22T08:58:39+05:00 Eek! Heads up: Facebook Hides Messages You May Not Know About http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111119142401 I just learned that Facebook will silently hide messages to you. No alerts that they arrived, no entry on the dropdown list of recent messages, no red bubbles to indicate anything is there, nothin'. Yes, these are real messages from real people you know. Go into your Messages screen, and in the navigation area is a little line that says "Other". Nothing else, just "Other." Click on that. In my case, I found over a dozen real messages to me that I feel terrible I didn't know about. Some dated back a year. (I wonder if there might have been others before them that were just as silently deleted.) Yeah, there's a little spam in there too, which I assume is the intent of this "Other" category. In my case, two of the twenty messages were what I'd consider real spam -- unsolicted junk from people I don't know. A couple where from organizations I "liked", so it's arguable whether those are spam. One was from... Facebook! But the majority were from real people I knew, messages I would have wanted to know about. So, heads up. Check your "Other" link. And, uh, check it frequently, since there's no hint when there's something new. :( <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111119142401#comments'>[Comments]</a><a href='http://www.amazon.com/Privacy-Most-Public-ebook/dp/B004D4YNK2'> Check out one of aburt's ebooks <img border=0 src='http://aburt.com/fiction/ad/mkad.php?t=Privacy Most Public&c=privacy.jpg&k=1'></a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-11-19T14:24:01+05:00 How the 1% Could Set a Good Example http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111117122102 This isn't meant to be a political post; I'm aiming for a balanced couple ideas here that should appeal to both sides of the spectrum. First is an idea about increased tax collection, then below that about decreasing spending. First, and with politics aside of whether or not taxes should be raised for anybody: Recently there have been a number of millionaire/billionaire types saying they want their taxes raised. One thing those members of the "1%" who advocate for higher taxes could do to set a good example for the rest (of both the 1% and the 99% whom they're trying to persuade) would be to voluntarily pay additional income taxes themselves. It's simple to do: <a href="http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/resources/faq/faq_publicdebt.htm#DebtFinance">They can pay online or mail a check.</a> If they feel that strongly about it, they could pony up. The 1% are rather maligned recently, so this could help improve their image. (That and toning down the greed so it's subordinate to providing good products & services on reasonable terms, of course; trying to squeeze every penny out of people with absurd fees isn't helping their image. But that's a different rant. :) So, back to them paying more taxes voluntarily to help everyone out.) Folks in the 1% tend to be highly competitive, so, to make this more effective, there ought to be a public Donors List — then folks could compete to get higher on the list and the media could report on the status of the leaderboard. Right now this program exists, but is largely unknown, both to those who might donate and to everyone else who could give them props and applause for helping out. So it would need much more of a spotlight than it has now for this to work. Highly visible folks in the 1% could kick things off once there's a plan in place for how to make it visible. Obama could donate. Warren Buffet could donate. Bill Gates could donate. People could donate anonymously too, of course, but you want big names taking a concrete position. The money donated probably wouldn't singlehandedly eliminate the deficit, but it would (a) help — in a significant way if a lot of them participated — and (b) symbolically show them putting their money where their mouth is, leading by example for others. Right now a large part of the economic problem is because of lack of confidence. The big boys who earn the top spots by donating vast sums should receive plenty of public appreciation. Brave acts like this, particularly from a lot of respected people, would help restore confidence. "Do as I do" is more powerful than "Do as I say." The parallel idea, for those who believe spending should be cut rather than taxes raised — which in conservative circles often means cutting social/entitlement programs, not, e.g. defense spending — a parallel highly-public list could be developed where people sign a (binding) public pledge that they will not take assistance from the government in those key areas where they believe spending should be cut. In other words, those who believe social security / medicare /etc. should be cut could lead by example, by agreeing never to accept funds from social security, medicare, etc., for the rest of their life. They would not be exempt from paying taxes into the fund — because doing so has been established by the collective will of everyone, and should thus remain so until the collective will of the people changes — however, their taxes would go down as this pool of "opt-outs" grows to sizable portions. That is, taxes collected to fund these programs would be reduced, since there would be all these fewer people to provide for. If the purportedly 28% of people who say they support the Tea Party (and its principles of "shrinking government", which, again, more or less equates to eliminating spending on programs from which they might themselves be recipients) — if those 28% were to opt out of ever drawing such funds, there would be approximately 28% less funds needed for those programs. Their goal would be to lead by their example and get others to likewise opt out of accepting funds from the programs they declare are unnecessary. In both cases, those who exhort others to "Do as I say" would be taking a concrete action as evidence of their convictions, which could help sway others to their position, and they would have the clear conscience and powerful example behind them to say, "Do as I do." <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111117122102#comments'>[Comments]</a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-11-17T12:21:02+05:00 99 cent Special on Ben Bova's THE WEATHERMAKERS on Amazon from ReAnimus Press http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111114122219 For a limited time we're offering a special "It's Fall and the Weather is a changin'" 99¢ promotional price on our ebook of Ben Bova's THE WEATHERMAKERS. This is only on Amazon — here's the link: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Weathermakers-ebook/dp/B005V55PPE">THE WEATHERMAKERS on Amazon</a> The poor thing doesn't have any reviews yet on Amazon, so a review would be appreciated if you have the time. I'm glad we got to publish it since it's a fun story, still topical, with real characters, and I thought Clay Hagebusch's cover for this turned out really cool, too. The special price won't last long so get it while it's hot. Enjoy! (And please spread the word - thanks!) <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111114122219#comments'>[Comments]</a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-11-14T12:22:19+05:00 A GUIDE TO BARSOOM from ReAnimus Press - Just went live! http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111111122150 Maybe I'm the only one who thinks Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars books are a lot of fun. (Well, Disney must think so too, since they're releasing a John Carter of Mars movie next year. <a href="http://reanimus.com/store/?item=1131">The trailer makes it look like fun.</a>) :) But yeah, okay, they are neat. So, my ReAnimus Press has just released John Flint Roy's A GUIDE TO BARSOOM as an ebook. It's been out of print for a long time, with used copies being pretty pricey. This one wasn't easy to get republished. John Flint Roy has passed away, but those who know ERB-Dom know Caz, and we got it going. Mike Resnick offered to write an introduction, and I gladly took him up on that. We've got the great original Neal MacDonald illustrations, and a cover. The ERB Inc. people were really nice, but it took ages to clear Disney legal. But it did! And now it's ready! We're in the process of uploading it to the usual places, but for those who want it now, here it is: <a href="http://reanimus.com/store/?item=1131">http://reanimus.com/store/?item=1131</a> Enjoy! <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111111122150#comments'>[Comments]</a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-11-11T12:21:50+05:00 Analyzing the Amazon Lending Library http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111110124804 Amazon's new "Lending Library" could be really great for authors, or could really suck big time. It all depends on the terms. Which nobody seems to really know. <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/49430-could-amazon--s-lending-library-end-in-court-.html">Publishers Weekly</a> writes, "each time a Prime user borrows a book, Amazon pays the publisher as if the book was bought." If those are the precise terms, no fuzzy explanation involved, then that's a great deal for authors. You'd get paid every time someone checks out a book, as if they bought it. However, if PW's reporter was even just slightly off in her description of the terms — and how often are journalists 100% correct? especially about legalistic, almost mathematical terms — then this could be a really bad deal. How bad? Try $0 in earnings after a small number of copies are sold into the library. Let's look at the scenarios. If instead of buying a copy every time a book is borrowed, Amazon instead buys a book every time they don't have one in the library to lend — because either it's the first time someone's wanted to borrow it, or because all the copies are checked out, so they need an additional one, and the deal is that if Amazon already has a copy in the library that isn't checked out, they don't pay again for that when it gets borrowed (as is more like a normal library) — then there's a problem. If Amazon purchases a small number of copies to "lend" — that number being the maximum number that were ever simultaneously borrowed — and if after that point Amazon could loan those copies again without paying another royalty (which is how a regular library would work) — then for the cost of purchasing a small number of copies, Amazon could lend that book out forever in the future without paying the author/publisher anything more. This isn't the same as if 10,000 local libraries each bought a copy (and couldn't loan between them). This is more like 10,000 local libraries pooling all their copies together. They'd need a lot fewer copies, since demand is distributed over time and geography. With Amazon as the "one stop library" for all Kindle users, one copy can serve a lot more readers. We don't know if those are the terms (that Amazon pays once per lendable copy, and is allowed to lend that copy as many times serially thereafter). If they are, however, it's a bad thing for authors, as it means they'll get $0 future dollars once Amazon has bought a few library copies. (That number being the high water mark of simultaneous checkouts.) If that copy stays checked out for a month, it means Amazon has to buy another copy when someone new wants to borrow it. But in the next month, Amazon would have an inventory of a bunch of copies, and might not need to buy any more to meet demand ever again. We also don't know that Amazon won't change the lending terms in the future. "One book a month" is just what they're doing today. They could change that any time. The math also has a lot to do with how long the book stays checked out. If the borrower returns it in say, two days, that copy is then available for another (unpaid) checkout. If it's kept out for 30 days each time, then at least the number of simultaneous (paid-for) copies goes up. The more flexible Amazon makes the lending rules with shorter time periods, the fewer copies will get sold and the less authors/publishers will earn. The worst case scenario would be if they (in the future) decided to change the terms to allow loaning out ebooks by the page, a minute or two at a time, and only bought copies when there was a simultaneous demand for that exact same page. Then a small handful of copies could potentially serve the needs even of a huge bestseller. (My Ph.D. is in math & computer science, and I did indeed run the numbers on this. It's dismal. Something like 10 copies could meet the needs of a bestseller read by millions of people. Think about it — how many people in the world are on the same exact page of the same book at the same time? So if you ever hear of anything like this in the works, run screaming.) So, the best case scenario is if Amazon pays every time a copy is borrowed. That would be a fair deal, even a good deal, for authors and publishers. Somehow I doubt Amazon is doing that, however, or even if they are initially, I doubt they'll continue doing that indefinitely. It's costly for them. Someone borrowing the (current) maximum of 12 books a year at $9.99 list = $7 to the publisher each, could cost Amazon $84 year — more than the $79 cost of Amazon Prime. Perhaps the cost of Amazon Prime would cover it in the aggregate sense... but, really, Amazon isn't noted for generosity, and with hidden terms, it seems likely they would be Amazon-friendly. Any other terms are likely to be bad for authors and publishers. We need to get the real terms nailed down to know if this is good or bad for authors. <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111110124804#comments'>[Comments]</a><a href='http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004LX0F9I'> Check out one of aburt's ebooks <img border=0 src='http://aburt.com/fiction/ad/mkad.php?t=Delta Pi&c=deltapi-cover.jpg&k=1'></a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-11-10T12:48:04+05:00 Recycle Your Money http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111108123437 I've seen a recurring theme recently on facebook, newspapers, and the like, suggesting that this holiday gift-giving season people in the "99%" should support local businesses and should give homemade gifts. I think the former idea -- supporting local businesses -- is great. Small businesses are the backbone of the economy, so helping them helps everyone and saves civilization as we know it. It's the latter idea that has me scratching my head. The "99%" / "Occupy" movement is ostensibly about wanting the economy to be better than it is. That's cool. Good goal. The problem is that deliberately withholding money from businesses is actually harmful to the economy -- the very economy that the 99% movement seeks to improve. Playing armchair economist here, the economy requires money changing hands. It has to flow; it has to move from, say, Person A to the grocery store for a loaf of bread, from the store to the baker, from the baker to the seller of the wheat -- who in turn recycles that money by buying, say, ebooks to read from their favorite ebook purveyor (say, ahem, <a href="http://ReAnimus.com/store">ReAnimus Press</a>). :) Who in turn recycles that money by paying it to workers and authors, who in turn recycle the money to buy bread, and so on and so on, round and round it goes. The engine of the economy is about how fast money turns over. In a slow economy, the money doesn't get recycled enough. People sit on it. Hoard it. That keeps it out of circulation (literally). So, for the economy to get better, everyone needs to Recycle Their Money. Obviously that's hard if you don't have it, so I'm certainly not urging anyone lacking a home or food to spend on costly gifts for others. But 99% of the US population is not at that level; there's money there that could be flowing. Deliberately choosing to sit on cash is harmful to the currently-slow economy. Now to be clear, I'm not saying "Go out to Mega-Lo-Mart and buy cheap Chinese stuff." That's a whole separate argument. I'm saying keep your money flowing. Recycle it. (And as for the Chinese question, that's a question of whether you want to help the Chinese economy or not. I'm sure the poor Chinese folks appreciate US money flowing in to help them increase their standard of living; and there's something to be said for "A rising tide floats all boats." But that may take decades, and it might be better to get the US economy back on a sound footing first, rather than dragging it down to boost theirs. Not an easy question, really, in the grand scheme of things.) Nor am I saying, "Spend more at a local business even though they cost more, because they keep the money in the US." (There's something to be said for competition, which keeps costs down. Like I said, that's not an easy question.) But it's also not related to my point. Which is, be (ahem) "green" and Recycle Your Money. :) That'll help everyone and, in turn, you. <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111108123437#comments'>[Comments]</a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-11-08T12:34:37+05:00 New tool for Smashwords authors http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111106115430 I wanted to let folks know about a tool I've put up for Smashwords authors to help with the dreaded Nuclear Option, called the "Nuclear Option Assistant." It's at: <a href="http://ReAnimus.com/fixformat">http://ReAnimus.com/fixformat</a> Here's the background on it. Here at ReAnimus Press we get a lot of crazily formatted .doc files to deal with (since we do things like scan/OCR print books for authors or reformat manuscripts they provide, we have no control over the original). That means we often have to resort to the Nuclear Option. The #1 thing we've found the most annoying about having to employ the Nuclear Option is that it loses all the italics. Grrrr! The other formatting stuff is merely a pain to restore, but ouch! Trying to hunt down all the italics! One little "I" hidden in a paragraph is hard to spot, not to mention there can be hundreds of italicized bits in a novel. Manually marking each to re-italicize takes forever. That wasn't working for us, so I put on my programmer hat and wrote a program to do it. It takes a .doc file, notes the italics, wipes all the formatting (the "Nuclear Option"), then restores the italics back, leaving a clean file with just the "Normal" style applied to it, with italics. Knowing how much of a pain the Nuclear Option is, I thought this "Nuclear Option Assistant" might be of use to others, so I've put it up on our web site as a free tool. I hope this helps save people as much gnashing of teeth as it's saved us. <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111106115430#comments'>[Comments]</a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-11-06T11:54:30+05:00 What Greedy CEOs Need to Understand (it's not that difficult) http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111104083245 So I got hit with a bunch of exasperating smacks from different companies this week, all in the same realm of "annoying things companies do just out of greed." This collided with a newspaper article where a bunch of CEOs said they didn't get the Occupy movement, didn't understand why people were upset with CEOs and their companies. Well, maybe we can clue you in, guys. So I started a Facebook page for it, if you want to post examples of your own, called What Greedy CEOs Need to Understand: http://www.facebook.com/pages/What-Greedy-CEOS-Need-to-Understand-OWS/284283668269868 In my case, you can read there about Frontier airlines, who cancelled my flight next year (bought & paid for), rescheduling me onto a flight hours earlier that I couldn't possibly make because of the connection from another airline. Apparently they decided that my flight wasn't making them enough profit, so they'd just cancel that flight. WTF! We had a deal, and we made plans around that. I call that: #greedy Then there's the bank where I keep the accounts for Critters and ReAnimus Press, who decided to be greedy and suddenly charge $2/month for sending paper statements -- $48/year all told. (Like, dudes, a bank is about taking deposits and lending those out for interest... not charging fees to hold your money for you. A mattress will do that for free.) (I should add that I do generally like digital over paper — and if they emailed me a PDF of the statement I'd be entirely happy. But emailing a note telling me I need to go log in, hunt down the file, and manually download it, every blasted month, for every account I have (since other places also are pushing for this) — that's a lot more work for me. Email me the thing itself, I'd be happy.) Then there's GoDaddy, where last year I cancelled an SSL certificate for a web site I don't use any longer. Last year, after I'd supposedly cancelled it, they automatically charged me for a renewal, which was annoying, so I had to waste my time to call, and they said sorry, no problem, all sorted out. Except this year, ding! again it autorenews and charges my credit card with no warning. Seriously, people, cancelling something means — cancel it. Permanently. Completely. No "accidental" lingering charges for it, hoping, what, you won't notice? That's twice now I haven't been able to get it stopped. Just like the banks that leave open an account after you say "close it", so they can still count you as a customer — One bank still counts us as a customer even though we closed the account like 20 years ago — this smells fishy, intentional, and #greedy. Ok, then there was a problem with another place that failed to make a scheduled payment for money they owed. (Yeah, all these hit like on the same day this week.) And there's no way to contact them to reach a human. Preventing you from reaching a human to resolve a problem is just... #greedy. And I'm still of the opinion that if <a href="http://critique.org/bcs.ht">a company wastes your time because of their error, they should reimburse you for it.</a>) All of which was what put me over the edge to make me create that Facebook page. :) I should say, I'm a big fan of capitalism — but tempered by ethical behavior. (Which usually requires laws, regulations, taxes, etc.) So, share your examples there on that facebook, and who knows, maybe someday the CEOs will get the clue! <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111104083245#comments'>[Comments]</a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-11-04T08:32:45+05:00 So, Where do you buy your ebooks, and Why? http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111031115419 This is an open-ended "tell me your thoughts" kind of blog entry... I notice with sales of ReAnimus Press titles and my own ebooks that a lot come from Amazon (no surprise there) but that there seem to be some surprises in where the rest come from. I'll deal with Barnes & Noble in a minute. Question #1 relates to other, smaller online stores. Do you buy much from small ebook stores? Directly from publisher sites? From authors? The sales on the <a href="http://www.critique.org/c/store">Critters store,</a> for example, are nearly non-existent. (Where sales benefit the Critters Fund Drive; so I'd think Critter members might want to buy there instead of from Amazon.) More people buy directly from the <a href="http://www.ReAnimus.com/store">ReAnimus store</a> but sales are still not as high as I'd like to see. (The authors earn more from sales there, since there's no Amazon/etc. distributor to take a big bite.) If it was all the same to the buyer, I'd hope they'd buy direct... so... Question #2... is it all the same to you, as a reader? How potent are the benefits you gain from buying from Amazon? (I thought it might be lack of tutorials on how easy it is to load ebooks onto a Kindle/Nook/etc., but I wrote those tutorials, showing it's easy, and that didn't do anything as far as sales.) Now for B&N. I don't see nearly as many coming from B&N's site as I'd expect. Not nearly as many. <a target=_blank href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-22/barnes-noble-falls-after-dividend-halt-same-store-sales-rise.html">Bloomberg</a> reported, "according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Amazon.com also generates 58 percent of e-book sales, followed by Barnes & Noble's 27 percent, Apple Inc. at 9 percent." If that's the case, I'd expect to see approximately half as many sales of ebooks via B&N as from Amazon. Half??? The ratio I actually see? B&N runs between 1/10th of Amazon in a "good" month and 1/100th overall. I get vastly more sales from <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/reanimus">Smashwords</a> than from B&N. (And via Smashwords, distributors like Apple, Sony, etc. are all far more than B&N.) This is sales both via B&N directly and B&N sales via Smashwords, and over a period of a year and a half. I've heard from other pro authors that their numbers are similarly low. It was so bad I actually thought B&N was stealing sales, i.e. not reporting them. I did some tests, and all those purchases came through, so I don't think that's the problem... just... not much visited? I thus question the Bloomberg / Goldman Sachs data that B&N sells half as much as Amazon. So question #3 to the audience... Do you buy much from B&N? This is presuming you have a Nook, of course, and not a Kindle. So where do you buy from, and why? Tell me your thoughts... <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111031115419#comments'>[Comments]</a><a href='http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004LGTJKG'> Check out one of aburt's ebooks <img border=0 src='http://aburt.com/fiction/ad/mkad.php?t=A Bird in Hand&c=bird-cover.jpg&k=1'></a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-10-31T11:54:19+05:00 Ebooks and Bridging the Digital Divide http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111025092623 Author Seanan McGuire suggests in her <a target=_blank href="http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/390067.html?page=10&view=16985011#comments">blog</a> that the much-heralded "death of print" and wild happy-dancing around ebooks is a disaster for those living in poverty. Her concern is that ebook readers are too costly; that people that poor risk having such items of value stolen, potentially "stealing my entire world"; and that paper books are the only salvation. Bridging the digital divide is something that's very important to me — bearing in mind I started the world's first Internet service provider back in the day, and did so as a free service specifically to allow the public onto the then-closed Internet. I likewise started the first writers' workshop on the web, again as a free service, to ensure access to all. I should also disclose that I'm a huge fan of ebooks, that I did suggest to Jeff Bezos he get into ebooks at an awards dinner in 2004, and that I'm now an ebook publisher myself (<a href="http://reanimus.com">ReAnimus Press</a>), driven by a personal desire that I wish every book ever printed were available as an ebook, and because I once again feel ebooks have that same potential to serve a need for equality of access that paper books can't meet. McGuire raises some interesting points, but I think the scenario she describes will only remain an issue for a fairly short time. In other words, I think ebooks will — in the near future — tremendously help bridge the divide. Or, perhaps a better analogy, allow nearly everyone to move from the one side of the digital book divide onto the other. I think bridging the digital divide vis-a-vis books/ebooks will be accomplished via low cost / freely accessible ebook reading devices. We're not there yet, today. However, we are on the steep, Moore's-Law-following decline in prices of e-readers. Someone blogged that at the rate the Kindle prices were falling, the Kindle would be free by, well, next month, and told Jeff Bezos, who sort of smiled or winked or something. Obviously Kindles won't be free next month, but it's not far off when there will be dirt cheap / free e-readers. At that point, and with the the ability to store one's ebooks themselves in the cloud, there's no real danger of someone stealing someone's entire library from them as she mentions was a concern. Let's say in the (not too distant [*]) future one could check out the device from the library free like one today checks out the "paper book device", and let's say most books are available as free library downloads to that device (which is imaginable; lots of good stuff already there). Then the paper library borrowing experience could be basically replaced by a free digital library borrowing experience. I see this as a huge benefit for those with little resources, since there will be more books available to them for free than they have now via paper; less weight to carry 1000s of them; etc. ([*] Let's say, within 0-3 years for borrowing devices from libraries, and having the library's full depth of print titles available as ebooks within 10-15 years, if not much sooner.) Smartphones are also dropping in price. Having read on my phone for almost ten years now, I can attest it's an entirely viable reading device. At some point there will probably be a government required basic service requirement for an inexpensive cell phone data plan, much as today the government requires landline providers to offer a low-cost phone plan. (And there are also the pirate channels, which on those same basically free e-readers can make available every ebook, not just those in that library and those not already checked out. And no, as an author and a publisher, I don't worry about piracy in that context: anyone who pirates a copy of a book who couldn't pay for it is not just irrelevant to a publisher's or author's income, they're probably a future benefit, as they may in the future pay for something from the author they wouldn't have otherwise known about.) I would be surprised if there weren't already libraries that lent Kindles or other e-readers. If not, I bet there will be really soon. They're barely more than the price of two hardbacks today and falling rapidly. Heck, who knows, maybe Jeff Bezos will donate a bunch to libraries or something, a la Andrew Carnegie. (With, of course, a "Buy this title for your personal library" button.) So color me an optimist on this. Ebooks are not a threat; on the contrary, they will be of ginormous benefit to all segments of society. <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111025092623#comments'>[Comments]</a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-10-25T09:26:23+05:00 Survey Says: People Really Like Ebook Readers http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111004142853 So I've been doing a little <a href="http://critique.org/c/ersurv/">survey</a> for a few days. (You can take the survey if you'd like; it's ongoing.) It asks people the basic question, Have you tried an ebook reader recently under realistic, comfy reading chair conditions? It's not asking if people own an ebook reader, or read ebooks, or any of that. I wanted to get at a more fundamental question: Do people like the experience of reading ebooks, under their normal reading conditions? Standing up in a noisy store holding a reader that's tethered to the counter like you're planning The Great Ebook Reader Demo Model Robbery is far from ideal. With the tether pulling the thing out of your hands like a hungry black hole it's hard to get a real sense of the feel. Not to mention the store demo models probably don't have any books on there you're really interested in reading right then. So I wanted to know if (a) people had even tried an ebook reader under realistic conditions (e.g., borrowing from a friend); and (b) if they had, did they like it or not. Wow! A whopping 80.0% said Yes, and liked it. That's as of 150 responses so far. I didn't post this to any ebook-friendly sites; just in groups where people like to read. (And that, of course, is the target market for ebooks and ebook devices.) Holy cow. That's a huge amount of support in favor of ebook reading. A tiny 2.7% said they had tried a reader under those conditions but didn't like it. That leaves 17.3% who said they had not yet tried an ebook reader under those conditions. (But one suspects they eventually might, if 82.7% had already given a test drive.) That's probably good news for those who like ebooks. Given the cost of printing and shipping paper copies, not having them in the right place (thus getting sold out in one store and not selling in another), as well as the cost coming down to the levels many have said over the years "Unless a reader device cost $X they'll never get popular" — and now they cost $X or less — it sure seems to me like ebooks have a bright future. Paper, hmmm, not so much. <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20111004142853#comments'>[Comments]</a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-10-04T14:28:53+05:00 If Amazon is Clogged With Spam Ebooks, Who is Buying Them? http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20110618074007 I saw <a target=_blank href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/17/amazon-kindle-spam-direct-publishing-ebooks_n_878946.html?ir=Books">this article</a>, saying that spammers have resorted to publishing spam ebooks. Lots of copies of basically the same content from different people or even the same people. The question to me is, why are people buying these spam books? If there aren't any buyers, it will die out as unprofitable. And aren't duped buyers grousing to Amazon if they do get duped by some junk content? Amazon would then presumably remove the book and even the 'author' if found to be flagrant. Amazon takes months to pay so they could even deny payment. But if nobody buys them, they aren't really hurting anything (other than using a fraction of a penny of Amazon's storage space). If they don't show up on search results, nobody will know they even exist. If they do show up but people review them as "this is just spam", who would bother buying them? In the article, there's a quote, "'This is why email spam has become such a problem -- it costs nothing,' she said. 'If people can put out 12 versions of a single book under different titles and authors, and at different prices, even if they sell just one or two books, they can make money. They win and the loser is Amazon.'" I'm not sure I buy that logic. If, as indicated in the article, they list them for sale at 99¢, sell 1-2 copies (at which price Amazon only pays 35% royalty), they're only earning 35-70¢ for their entire effort on that 'title.' It takes time to set up and upload each title with unique info in it. It takes even more time to create a new account, if they don't want Amazon noticing, Hey, Look, this 'author' has 500 ebooks listed and they're all nearly identical. Seems pretty easy for Amazon to spot to spammers. Say it takes a total of an hour from start to finish for one title. So that's less than a dollar for what amounts to a decent-sized chunk of an hour's work, with a high possibility of getting caught, and thus earning $0. Wow, 35¢ an hour. As for stolen copies of other people's work, that's dangerous. Copyright infringement can carry some stiff penalties if you sue them. Because Amazon pays them, Amazon knows the true (bank) identity of the thief (which, thanks to the Patriot Act means they'll likely know the real human and where they are). So if they steal your stuff, they're in danger of a big fat lawsuit with big fat damages. You might actually hope someone pirates your stuff to sell on Amazon! The quote is wrong in one regard, however. Amazon is not entirely the loser. Amazon keeps 65¢ of those 99¢ titles. That's an incentive to allow it. Amazon's incentive to stop it is if the sales make the readers sour on Amazon as selling junk. But if readers aren't complaining... I still come back to the visibility side of it. If these are that ever-present, and selling better than 1-2 copies, then these guys have learned something about how to get their material seen. It's hard enough to get one's stuff noticed and purchased when it's good, unique content. :) So perhaps the real question is, if people are buying a lot of copies of these books of random noise, what are the spammers doing better at marketing than we are? :) Maybe we can learn something from them. <a href='http://critique.org/c/blog?l=20110618074007#comments'>[Comments]</a> Andrew Burt - http://critique.org 2011-06-18T07:40:07+05:00 About Andrew Burt http://aburt.com/fiction Dr. Andrew Burt is a professional science fiction writer and former Vice President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. He herds Critters (<a href="http://www.critique.org">www.critique.org</a>), the first writer's workshop on the web. Outside of science fiction, he founded the world's first Internet service provider, has been a computer science professor (research in networking, security, privacy, and free-speech/social issues), and a technology consultant/author/speaker. He's currently CEO of TechSoft, and President of <a href="http://GreenAroundYou.org">GreenAroundYou.org</a>. . For a hobby, he constructs solutions to all the world's problems. Fortunately -- nobody listens. He lives in the Rockies with his wife and their two parrots. <a href='http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004LGTJKG'> Check out one of aburt's ebooks <img border=0 src='http://aburt.com/fiction/ad/mkad.php?t=A Bird in Hand&c=bird-cover.jpg&k=1'></a> Andrew Burt - http://aburt.com/fiction 2011-02-14T07:00+00:00