Girl Genius

Voice of the Castle is out. Ish. It's out in hardback and mysteriously out on Kindle only in the UK.

edited 23rd Dec '14 2:11:34 PM by khil

The ebook will be out in the US toward the end of January.

Dumb move, if you ask me. The idea is to nudge people to buy the more expensive hardcover, but the nature of the market has changed. Some people will never buy another paper book again. The publishers have squandered the potential of a holiday season release and their sales ranking by delaying the ebook audience's purchases until well after the holidays.

Normally, I'd say it's their business and surely they know it better than I do, but I know for a fact that publishing is a mess right now.

Especially in a case like this — most people who read webcomics will read ebooks I should think.

Yeah...

There is the devotion factor. Some fans are so eager to support their favorite artists they'll show up with money on release day no matter what. But that's a fraction of fans.

The way I figure it, they're either worried that the cheaper ebooks will undercut hardcover sales, or they're just following the old release models. There are some practical considerations for a softcover release. You want to know it will sell first, which you gauge from your hardcover numbers. But this is flat-out irrelevant in ebooks. Meanwhile, I am never going to buy the hardcover. They are never going to get $20 from me, they will only ever get $15. And they could have gotten $15 from me months ago, but they still won't allow it for another month. I have no idea how they justify that. A dollar today is worth more than a dollar three months from now. That's business school basics.

But anyway. In short, ebooks have changed the game, and publishers haven't figured it out yet.

E-books are a good alternative for the plain text paperback book.

I am not sold on them as a replacement for illustrated books or large format books in general.

I prefer real paper books most of the time, but I already have a fair amount of bookshelf devoted to Girl Genius, and the novelizations just don't excite me that much.

But I love how ebooks are searchable. I would have given a lot to have ebook texts when I was in school!

Eta: Yeah, I sorta considered buying the hardcover for half a second out of pure impatience, but the searchability is too handy to give up.

edited 23rd Dec '14 7:07:34 PM by mona.soyun

Searchability is one of the main reasons I prefer the GG novels in ebook format.

Page! Only on LJ so far, though.

I did publishing as a senior project at my high school (required) in the mid 1990s (yes, I'm dating myself) because I was interested in being an author. (Still am, if I can ever finish a book.) The big name publishers had the field to themselves, and a new name or small-time author getting published beyond their immediate circle was nearly impossible unless you had the money to pay for 'vanity' publishing -which most readers and publishers frowned on due to the crap put out 90% of the time.

E-publishing has changed the game dramatically, but most of the big-name publishing houses haven't gotten the message yet. With e-publishing and websites, and now Amazon's program of being able to sell fanfiction, anyone can publish anything at minimal costs to themselves. As 50 Shades showed, publishers will even offer money for good fanfic once the serial numbers are filed off.

The only reason I don't buy more e-books is Amazon's 'you're really only renting it' attitude with most works makes me nervous; the only ones I have are where I know the author independently. But as far as sites like Project Gutenberg and others with works in the public domain are concerned, bring them on; I LOVE being able to read on my phone! (Used to haul 1-4 books along on the bus; that gets heavy.)

Oooo, Sparky printing presses and publishing...

Shameless plug for a friend: check out J. A. Marlow's works. Fantastic.

Amazon is not the only player in the ebook game!

Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Baen, Google... Lots of options for self-publishing: Smashwords, Lulu, Bookbaby... Subscription services like Scribd and Oyster... Even public libraries are checking out ebooks (somehow — I don't understand the infrastructure on that one).

ETA: Class of '95 here. *Rapidly approaching middle aged lady fistbump*

Also I kind of love Humongulus

edited 23rd Dec '14 7:27:51 PM by mona.soyun

Humongulus is very cute indeed. ETA: For just a bit, I thought he was pulling the lift up so fast that the friction was melting the mechanism.

If he hadn't killed Rerich, I'd be thinking about liking Tweedle about now. Even with the kidnap and chemical leash of Agatha. Not enough to want to ship him with Agatha, but enough to wonder if he'd be salvageable.

edited 23rd Dec '14 7:57:37 PM by Lightningnettle

The library patron downloads an e-book file from the library website using their library card. The file expires (stops showing any of the page content) after a certain fixed period of time. For supply reasons, only a finite number of library patrons are aloud to check out the same e-book at the same time. Yes, I do work at a library.

Zeetha, you're awesome and you know how to work with crazy body-building clanks. Sudden thought- what if Wulfenbach forces are involved in this battle? That would REALLY make things interesting!

Edit: Does anyone else think the stick Agatha is holding resembles the modified Lighting Staff used to revitalize DK? Granted, it looks like everyone has a stick, but she might have been incorporating some of the underlying principles in her work here.

edited 23rd Dec '14 8:11:14 PM by ElfKid2.0

Sparks. <eye-roll>

In any case happy holidays and prepare to see some Santa Klaus for the midnight.

Yes, Humongulus definitely is the clank.

...Come to think about it, Humongulus is probably going to be a huge target for the Chew-Chew Train. I mean, seriously. Think about it.

edited 24th Dec '14 1:36:57 AM by Pyrite

Yeah... :/ For a moment I was afraid the molten metal was the beast getting Humongulus.

Even if Humongolus were a huge target now, after the workshops AND the kitchens Chew Chew Train knows it is better to hit the road rather than overstaying the welcome.

I thought Humongulus was still below them operating a pulley?

I actually have no idea where Humongulus is vis a vis the lift. It's actually been bothering me, but not enough to puzzle it out.

He seems to have pulled it along tracks and then on this page he's hauling on a pulley as they rise up overhead. Which is what I thought he was going to do in the first place. I was temporarily very confused by the horizontal trip.

I saw that horizontal pull as dragging the elevator cage over to the shaft, myself.

I knew there were other platforms for e-publishing, but the only other one I could think of was Smashwords, and that one I wasn't sure of. Thank you.

One of these days I suppose I should check some ebooks out... I certainly check out enough hard copies. Maybe when I upgrade my phone next year. (Don't wanna, but technology keeps running, even without Sparks as fuel.)

That does seem to have been the case, yes.

I have been authorized to share this link here (just before I dash out for Christmas dinner) with best holiday wishes attached. Caution: Some may consider it spoilerish. Futher Caution: Contains Yarth's worst pun.

http://www.plurk.com/p/kn1n6p

Well, got Agatha H. and the Voice of the Castle for Christmas. See you all when I'm done.

Congratulations I'd be interested to hear what you think of it.