Hey, I noticed that EA Games has taken the liberty of putting game adds on their paid game called Mass Effect Infiltrator. Irritating. Maybe it's time for some rules on the app store about adds being placed in games after the initial buy. Evidently they can do this without me downloading an update, which begs the question: are they talking back and forth to my I-Pad at liberty, and without my knowledge? I don't know this, just wondering.
I just bought the newest novel by John Locke. It's about a psycho doctor who decides he is going to try out an on-line dating service. He has issues in dealing with social interaction. He is not a 'people' person. Moreover, he sometimes kills other doctors' patients and breaks into people's homes. Should be different, at least. I have yet to read one of Locke's books which I didn't enjoy. I bought this one as an ebook.
Speaking of the choice between ebooks and print, let's talk about that. I read somewhere the other day that in some cases ebooks were outselling print copies of the same book by a 4 to 1 margin. Like a snowball rolling downhill, the ebook takeover is unstoppable. Unless...
I think the vendors need to be careful. Why alienate the readers or writers? For instance, one of the on-line stores won't allow authors to make their books free, as a promotion, unless that author grants them exclusivity for several months. This entails taking their books off the other on-line stores. This same store makes it very tough to delete books you don't want from your ereader. Scratch that statement. They make it impossible to delete them, as far as I can tell. Why not give people control of their stuff? Who, in any market, buys something they can't throw away? Would you go buy a piece of pipe or a sofa that you can never throw away?
The same outfit also doesn't like it if you price your ebook cheaper on another site. I understand this and respect it, but, if you can't price your book at free as a promotion on another store because it will be cheaper than their store, they are effectively controlling you, or forcing you to give them exclusivity if you want to give away your book.
Some ebook stores have about 50% of the amount of ebooks as others. Selection is really an open and shut case if you are searching for a particular book. You'll buy it where you can find it.
The ebooks can slam the door on the competition (paper books) if they fix a few things. Like the ads on the game mentioned above. People want to know that they can have faith in their electronic buys. My book should be the same if I leave it on a Nook, Kindle or I-Pad for 20 years. My heirs should be able to read that book, or delete it. No one sitting in New York or elsewhere should be able to change a page, insert an ad or monitor how many pages I've read without my permission. It is as simple as our parents told us. Put yourself in the other guy's position and think about how you would like to be treated.
Another thing is something I have discussed many times on the blog. The high prices for ebooks are inexcusable, since there is no cost for ink, paper, or distribution. I won't beat that dead horse this morning. Try reading my post entitled The Ebook Discussion.
People become pushy, sometimes. People become controlling, sometimes. People mess up a good thing, sometimes. Like the fictional, untrustworthy doctor mentioned above, you don't have a lot of faith that your electronic games or books will always be there and be the same. Remember when copies of George Orwell's 1984 were removed from ereaders? We should have faith that doctors won't kill patients and book sellers and game makers respect books, games, and the folks who buy them.
Twice now, Gameloft has done me dirty on high end games. Modern Combat 3 and Nova 2, when I didn't do an update, popped a notice onto my screen that I might have "obtained my game illegally". Which is a damn lie. On Modern Combat 3, I had to delete the game, and re-install it, before I could even play it. When I did, I lost all progress. To this day, I have not reached the place I was at before the re-installment. Nova 2 did this concerning a map pack which I bought for $1.99. Is this their way of making people do updates so they can stick ads and stuff into the games???
Fledgling industries have growing pains. Let's treat the other guy like we want to be treated. Hey, sounds like the golden rule.
From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
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