BilmBlog500

So Hachette was having a cocktail reception this afternoon for literary agents to show off their beautiful new open plan offices. To which I RSVPed on December 15. Now, I'm curious as I walk up what kind of security thing they'll have, because having dozens or hundreds of agents waiting in line for their building passes would be kind of silly. So they have this check-in desk with a little Hachette sign and people holding scads of pre-printed bar-coded building passes.  And we're told that these are under the agency names, and I say I'm there from JABberwocky, and like half the people on line, I'm told "we don't have your badge; you'll have to check in with the main desk" where you need to get a nice individual photo guest barcoded badge. And I just didn't feel like it. Did they have the badge under my name even though I was told twice it should be under the agency's name?  The email signature on my RSVP did just have my name on it and not t...

Haven't done a blog post in way too long… On the subject of Hachette vs. Amazon of which too much has been written, let me make a few points: When Amazon says that e-book sales will grow if only they are priced cheaper , I consider this to be bullshit. John Scalzi is much more polite .  He disagrees by saying that he thinks it might well be a true statement for Amazon, but that it might not be true for everyone else, or for the broad publishing ecosystem in general, but that he has no reason to think Amazon is making up the numbers for Amazon. I don't feel like being that polite. Amazon's argument is essentially an updated variation of the famous "Laffer Curve" which Ronald Reagan used to justify the argument that lower taxes meant higher revenues.  Which if it is true at all is true only at certain high extremes of tax rates, because after a point you just can't keep getting more by charging less, whether it's e-books or government or chewing gum.   It a...