Quotes of the Week: A very twisted way of thinking

I don’t view Eric Powell as a competitor or Mike Mignola or Terry Moore. I don’t have to take from someone else to gain something. That’s a very twisted way of thinking in my book. We’re all fighting the same fight. Sure, we’re all going for a slice of the same pie, but believe me, there’s plenty for everybody, and if we work together we can actually make the pie bigger again, like it used to be.
--Steve Niles

[Books are] very old, cats and kittens, but before we had them we had scrolls and before that we had tablets and before that we had oral traditions. The codex—a book with a cover and pages—hasn't been around forever and it won't be around forever, and the sooner publishers, booksellers, and other industry insiders realize this and not only accommodate but embrace the changes that are revolutionizing the way people read, the better.
--Eric Blank

The multiplex audience...seems to lay down money for the right to sit in front of the movie and do whatever they want. That's different [from the art-house theater crowd], and I don't like it as much. It's colder. I don't think it's that the people are any better or any worse; I think it has to do with how much they love being at the movies. And for me to love being at the movies, I have to be with other people who love being there, too.
--Linda Holmes

Writing is Hard: 12 Steps to Getting Published

Pimp My Novel has a wonderful list of things you have to do to get your novel published. If only they were as easy as they sound. When it comes to my novel, I'm still not done with Step 1.

Difficult as they are though, it's a great list because it sets some realistic expectations for aspiring authors. I'm linking to it from here because I'm definitely going to want to refer to it again later.

Writing is Hard: The Future of Publishing

JA Konrath has an excellent post on possible futures of the publishing industry. According to him, it's all based on whether or not publishers learn anything from the music industry's failure to adapt to the Digital Age. Though I'm usually wary of comparing strategies from very different industries, Konrath knows way more about this stuff than I do and I don't see any point in his argument that doesn't make complete sense.

Boiled down, his main point is:

The rules of supply and demand don't work in a digital world, because the supply is unlimited. You don't fight piracy with weapons. You fight piracy with cost and convenience.

If there were a central hub, where you could easily search for ebooks and get them at a reasonable price, there would be no need to pirate books.

But there's a lot more to it than that. Required reading if you're interested in publishing at all.