So, to start us off, this post from John Scalzi about eARCS. (Please do click over to Whatever to read the whole thing). In brief, Scalzi writes:

Dear publicity folk: You know I love you, am philosophically inclined to and aligned with your goals, and I know you’re trying to do your job in innovative and interesting ways. I can’t blame you for that — indeed I applaud you. But this is a simple fact: The moment you make me jump through all sorts of hoops to access a book you want to publicize, you lose me. Because I am lazy, because I don’t take kindly to having to leave even more information about myself in someone else’s hands, because I don’t like feeling I’m not trusted and because I have lots of other books competing for my interest which don’t require me to do anything else but read.

Now, I love my Kindle. Love reading on my Kindle. I don’t put too many new books on it, because its main purpose is to make it easier for me to read manuscripts, but I’m not against the idea of reading published books on it. If I could find a sort of lending library for ebooks, I would be all over that — until then, most of the finished books I read are ones I either borrow from the library or have on my shelves. That said, I had my own moment of eARC fail last year at BEA. I picked up a code from a publisher for a book I’d heard about and was dying to read, went through the whole process of signing up (which Scalzi did not), but when I got through all that, all I could do with the novel was read it on my computer.

And, well, I can spend something like 10 hours or more a day in front of my computer. When I’m reading for pleasure, I don’t want to be tied to it. I want to curl up on the couch, or sit in the sun on the back deck. Hell, I want to use my Kindle for the purpose it was designed. So did I end up reading the eARC? No.

For publicity purposes, I agree with Scalzi — making reviewers jump through major hoops is a fantastic way of ensuring you won’t get too many reviews. But what do you think? Are you a fan of eARCs? (With the understanding that the purpose of any advanced reader copy is to promote the book and get people excited about it.) Do you think they work?

And even more basically — do you have an eReader of your own? If so, how do you use it?

In any case, I feel like it’s been a while since we’ve talked tech here on the Daphne blog, so I thought I’d throw out a few questions to you. What devices can’t you live without: Blackberry, iPhone, Palm, iPod, netbook, laptop, Kindle, Sony Reader, camera, rotary phone, typewriter… What’s your toy? And what do you think about the iPad?

Also, late breaking news — I’m going to be participating in fellow agent Colleen Lindsay’s AskAgent tweet chat TONIGHT at 10pm Eastern, 8pm Mountain. Follow us on #askagent.

James McQuivey posted a response to the news on the Forrester blog, saying, in part:

I’m just being a historian here when I point out that language like “We’re doing this to preserve our industry” is a classic symptom of what we at Forrester loving call The Media Meltdown. I wrote a whole report on this ailment and its many symptoms, chief among them is that media businesses attempt to preserve analog business models in the digital economy, even when analog economics no longer apply. This is exactly that scenario.

I have two very important messages to offer the book industry (most all of them clients, so I’m trying to be delicate here, the way a group of friends running an intervention for an alcoholic have to act even if it involves summoning tough love). The first message is the hardest to hear and it will make me some enemies. But the second message offers some hope and I encourage you book types to give it a fair hearing, because I have history and economics on my side.

I encourage you to click through to read his two messages. I’m highly optimistic that his plan for bundling the digital download of a book with the hardcover will become the norm. I love the convenience of reading on my Kindle, but I’m also a collector — I want my favorite books displayed on my shelves. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have had such a hard time paring down my book collection for my move out here to Denver, and Rexroth and I wouldn’t need to keep buying new bookcases.

I shared McQuivey’s article on Twitter, and was quickly asked by an author where I think authors should stand on this issue, “since they stand to lose royalties off of lower ebook pricing.” I replied briefly within the confines of the 140-character limit of Twitter, but I’ll expand on my thoughts here, since I have the room.

I think authors should be getting much higher royalties off e-books than they do off hardcovers or paperbacks. This is what I negotiate in my contracts, where a 25% royalty on e-books is somewhat common (although there’s a disturbing trend down to 15%) versus 10% on hardcovers, and 6% on paperbacks. Even with escalators and some variance from house to house and author to author, to my mind it should make sense that the author gets more money off an e-book edition than a physical copy, which has a much higher cost to produce.

Do I think S&S and Hachette are making the right decision to delay e-books of some of their forthcoming titles? No, I think they’re shooting themselves in the feet. The Wall Street Journal article says that only one author (from S&S) had asked not to be included on the list of titles [with delayed e-book editions], which are being published in the first four months of 2010. Personally? I want to know who that author is, so I can buy his book. As the WSJ quotes an Amazon spokesman, “Authors get the most publicity at launch and need to strike while the iron is hot. If readers can’t get their preferred format at that moment, they may buy a different book or just not buy a book at all.”

What do you think? Where do you stand on this issue? I look forward to chatting in the comments.

A lot of headlines and blogs to the contrary, publishing isn’t dying. But it is evolving, and so radically that we may hardly recognize it when it’s done. Literature interprets the world, but it’s also shaped by that world, and we’re living through one of the greatest economic and technological transformations since–well, since the early 18th century. The novel won’t stay the same: it has always been exquisitely sensitive to newness, hence the name. It’s about to renew itself again, into something cheaper, wilder, trashier, more democratic and more deliriously fertile than ever.

Now, there’s some stuff in the article that I would prefer were clarified. Grossman discusses the rise in fan fiction and self-publishing and references three authors whose self-published books sold very well through their own efforts and earned them high advances from traditional houses. But I think he could spend more time discussing the huge numbers of self-published titles that never sell more than 100 copies.
He mentions the YouTube culture of popularity bringing the best entertainment to the forefront of our consciousness, but think of how many millions of videos there are on YouTube that you’ll never see, never even hear of, that aren’t anything to write home about.
But I do like this part:

If you think about it, shipping physical books back and forth across the country is starting to seem pretty 20th century. Novels are getting restless, shrugging off their expensive papery husks and transmigrating digitally into other forms. Devices like the Sony Reader and Amazon’s Kindle have gained devoted followings.

I’ve said before, I love my Kindle, and for the ease of instaneous download and ease of transportation, a digital reader can’t be beat. But I’m not going to trash all the books I have currently, and I do think we — as an industry — need to consider the best way of paying authors, and agents, and editors, for the work they do in getting a rough manuscript to book form — whether that form is traditional or high tech.
Read the whole thing, and let’s talk about it. I’m curious to hear what you think.
(Ironically, perhaps, I first came to know Lev Grossman’s work through his novel Codex, which is partly about the search for a very old-fashioned medieval manuscript.)

From the library
• Bitten & Smitten by Michelle Rowen
• The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
• Mimus by Lilli Thal
• Exposed: Confessons of a Wedding Photographer by Claire Lewis
• Wit’s End by Karen Joy Fowler
• Moscow Rules by Daniel Silva
• The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer

From my personal collection
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• Nation by Terry Pratchett
• The Eight and The Fire by Katherine Neville
• East by Edith Pattou
• The Rough Guide to Italy
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: No Future For You by Brian K. Vaughan, Georges Jeanty and Joss Whedon

On my Kindle
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
• and any manuscript requests I haven’t gotten to in the next three days

It’s not like there won’t be holiday festivities to take part in, but I like to make sure my downtime is covered. Do you have any holiday reading plans?
Found the above great picture of shoes and books in the snow on Flickr under a Creative Commons license. Credit to Jamelah.

• Shoes. Although I must remember to pack some sort of mid-sized heel or walking shoe next time I’m going to be gallivanting around NYC for a week.
• Purple shoes. This deserves a special list entry all its own because it took me months of searching to find a pair for my wedding in April, and now stores everywhere are selling them, in case I need extras.
• My wonderful clients, new (Welcome Karen Hamilton and Ransom Riggs) and old (Maureen Johnson — yes, I called you old, although I’m sure you’d just point out that you are, in fact, two days younger than me) and everywhere in between. I love reading all of your books, and I’m thrilled that, even though I work alone, I work with some of the best people I know.
• Rexroth and Trixie, who, after a long day of my working alone, never fail to make me smile, keep me perky, and are happy to let me babble away with all the words I didn’t get out in my working hours.
• Facebook. I’m grateful to have yet another way of keeping in touch with editors, clients, friends, and family, and seeing what they’re up to all day. I’m also happy that is the complete and inclusive list of people whose friend invites I will accept.
• Manuscripts that keep me up too late. The lack of sleep is so worth it.
• My fantastic subagents, who’ve helped me close deals in Germany, Spain, Italy, and France already this year, and who go to such great efforts for my list. I can’t wait to see you in Bologna in the Spring.
• Bologna in the Spring. Whee!
• My kindle, which has changed the way I work and read.
• Bloggers everywhere who talk about books and keep a literary conversation alive.

What are you thankful for?

• Alyson Noel’s Kiss And Blog is going back to press!
• Ask Daphne is being reprinted in the Children’s Book Insider, and will have a quarterly column as of October.
• Registration for the 2nd Annual Kidlit Bloggers Conference in Portland, Oregon is now open. Rexroth and I will be there. Will you?
• And… um… The first act of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog is now up! Act II follows tomorrow, Act III on Saturday, and by Sunday it will be gone. Watch now!

Ok, that’s all I have time for this morning. Keep those questions coming for Ask An Editor!