J.A. Konrath yesterday posted a story of what is going on in publishing right now. I think it’s a pretty good summary of the situation.
Archive of posts filed under the business category.
Eventually there’s some stuff about the Authors Guild
In the Guardian piece I linked yesterday Clay Shirky was quoted saying, “Institutions will try to preserve the problem for which they are the solution.” Anecdotal evidence and intuition agree with this observation, but what does it really mean?
Of interest to writers
Barry Eisler has an article in The Guardian today continuing to point out the problems with the arguments supporting legacy publishers against the Justice Department’s suit. It’s good, but what prompted this post was the great links in the article to some things I hadn’t come across before.
Trust Busting
A lot of people are blogging lately about the civil antitrust suit the US Department of Justice filed against Apple and 5 of the Big 6 publishers. Some authors are saying some pretty ridiculous things to paint Amazon as the bad guy and the Big 6 as the underdogs, and of course the publishers themselves want [...]
More about the motivations of the Authors Guild
I should have mentioned this sooner, but on Friday Barry Eisler put up a nice post on his blog about the motivations of the Authors Guild. It explains the point more thoroughly than the original comment I made on the topic.
Draw Something
So Draw Something is cool. I want a stylus for my iPhone now. Zynga bought OMGPop (the makers of Draw Something) this week (only 6 weeks after the game was released), for $180 million plus $30 million in retention payments to keep the small developer’s 40 employees. In cash, not shares.
Geekdom Adventures
If you don’t already know about it, my wife is starting a company called Geekdom Adventures. It might coincide with your interests. Check it out.
More about the Mojang/Zenimax settlement
More news sites are realizing today what the Scrolls trademark going to Zenimax means for Mojang. Of course, they still haven’t really said anything about how little sense the whole thing makes. I think Zenimax Media gets better treatment than Tim Langdell by gaming news sites just because it actually makes games people enjoy.
The “Authors Guild” Speaks
Scott Turow, President of the Authors Guild, posted an open letter to its members regarding the US Department of Justice’s impending anti-trust lawsuit against five of the Big 6 book publishers, plus Apple. The contents of the letter are laughable, and there have been responses already posted by Joe Konrath, Barry Eisler, Suzanne White, David Gaughran, and probably [...]
Scrolls Settlement
Am I the only one who doesn’t think this settlement is good news? GamaSutra has a short article today pointing out the problem with this agreement, but in my opinion the problem is more fundamental than that: Zenimax never had any right to the Scrolls trademark.
Kickstarter Success
If you hadn’t heard, Double Fine Productions is going to be making a new point-and-click adventure game with Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert headlining the team, funded entirely through a Kickstarter project which went live last night. It’s big news today: this is the fastest-funded Kickstarter project ever, and already the one with the most backers [...]
Reality is Broken
This morning (yesterday morning now; I’ve been working on this post all day) I followed a link shared on Twitter by Jamie Madigan and Brenda Brathwaite to read an article entitled “I Don’t Want to be a Superhero.” Having read through almost all of Alfie Kohn’s Punished by Rewards by now, it got me thinking [...]
Cryptic
There’s a new interview at Rock, Paper, Shotgun with Jack Emmert from Cryptic discussing the recently-announced game they’re working on, Neverwinter. I have a hunch that it will flop, with all the attendant consequences for Cryptic and Atari that implies. I could be completely wrong; it wouldn’t be the first time nor the last.
Obligatory iPad Opinion/Speculation/Analysis
Almost everyone seems to have an opinion about the recently-announced Apple iPad.1 If you don’t, I may surmise that you either a) live under a rock, or have been distanced from the internet and tangential media and people enough that you have not yet heard about it, or b) you do not have any opinions at [...]
Vision of the Future
I found this blog, subscribed, and read this article a couple days ago. It’s really interesting stuff about how business really works. If you’ve been reading Malstrom’s Articles about Blue Ocean Strategy and Disruption, this should interest you.
