And by the way, if you think it’s paranoid to believe the Australian voice may disappear if Australian publishers disappear – check out the recent story about Amazon’s new patent for the substitution of synonyms at http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2009/10/30/amazon-software-patent-shakespeare-copyright-infringement/id=6999/.

While the apparent purpose might be prevention of piracy, even this commentator recognises the potential to take Shakespeare and turn it into ‘plain English’. He thinks it’s a GOOD idea, and I’m not getting into a debate about the merits or otherwise of making Shakespeare accessible (or dumbing it down – you choose).

But wouldn’t this be a neat tool for an editor who’s decided Graham or Terry or anyone else has written a corker of a story, if only they’d kept the language a bit simpler. Or more American. Or more British.

And with a bit of fine-tuning, perhaps readers will have access to it as a Kindle feature. Replace words you don’t like (personally I’m not a fan of “rubber”, have never liked the way it sounds). Every reader has their own version of Tom Sawyer (oh, I’ve deleted the word “cuss” from my edition, m’dear). Or Lord of the Rings (“I didn’t like ‘orc’ so I made it ‘politician’ throughout…”)

Hm, I think I can feel another short story coming on…

Whether it’s the removal of GST on books, a massive overhaul of our publishing system, or the complete abandoning of print and a nation-wide move to electronic media, something MUST be done to the price of books if we want to keep this country reading.

A free global market isn’t really free. Those populations with the greatest buying power set the rules. When books become simple commodities, and price the only consideration, tiny markets like Australia have no power. Market pressure takes all those magical, individual and eccentric voices and squishes them into a kind of homogenous word-gloop.

Graham, I know you resist the pressure to write for a market, and so you should. Perhaps the future landscape will be Amazon & Google on one hand (think McDonalds and KFC) with authors direct-selling their e-books on the other (the literary equivalent of the Slow Food movement).

Sigh. Another lie-down in order, I think.

It’s great to see that Amazon is actually making the changes. Thanks for sharing their response. I do have concerns that Amazon and Google are going to have a global duopoly on ebook publishing amd retailing one day. They’re not moving very quickly, but they’re still moving faster than anyone else.

On the other hand, at least they’re doing something while the rest of the industry wrings its hands and wonders which way to jump.

We are in the process of expanding our Digital Text Platform to accept international publishers. However, we are not yet accepting publishers through DTP without a U.S. address and bank account.

We will contact you once we have completed our transition. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Thank you, Amazon.com

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At least that means it is coming!
Thanks again Graham – you got my point without me even making it!

Since the only wireless e-reader available here is the Kindle, and you can only buy that from Amazon by mail order:

Pro: you only have one choice – decision made.

Con: you only have one choice – bummer!

Pro: love love LOVE the idea of multiple books on one snazzy little baby in my pocket on the plane (you know, for all the jetsetting I plan to do once I’m a rich and famous author). Con: can NOT make a decision for the life of me – I need to handle one before I can justify spending the spondooliks, coz it needs to FEEL as good as a book (especially since no matter what I’m reading, the object I’m holding isn’t going to change). Ditto on looks.

Pro: all the arguments about the benefits of digital publishing resonate for me. Con: all the arguments about saving Australian publishers resonate for me.

Pro: an e-reader will pay for itself in about five minutes, the way I read. Con: an e-reader is a significant investment and if I choose the Wrong One, I’m stuck with the literary equivalent of an 8-track.

Add to this my natal sign of Libra and I’m completely stuffed. I’m going for a lie down. Pass the smelling salts.

POD may well grow big in the interim, before e-books take over, but this game is always going to end the same way.

Terry, don’t remind me! I live in Queensland where the ‘sheets fading’, the ‘curtains fading’ and the ‘upsetting the cows’ arguments are still the majority position. Maybe it will be the last bastion of print books too and people will move here from other states just to go shopping in a good old-fashioned book shop

I like physical books and will still buy them from time to time until the price becomes too ridiculous. But that’s got nothing to do with the story, it’s because I’m a collector.
terry