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Comment It's an interesting choice - (Score 2) 332

As I was discussing with enraged friends last night:
Obviously the plot won't be one of exploration or discovery or anything resembling hard sci-fi but then this is "AbramsTrek" and Lin's a good match for this.

Lin can do good action sequences and FF's storyline (simple as it is) has always impressed me with how much heart he could squeeze out of those characters. I could easily see him doing a good rendition of Arena or Errand of Mercy. (And if you do those stories Orci I want a finders fee). The question ultimately lies with the script and whether or not Orci screws him over.

McCoy: "Can he do it?"
Spock: "If he has the script, doctor. If he has the script."

Comment Re:from the what-until-they-get-a-load-of-this dep (Score 1) 292

And you think proof reading is the only difference between a amazon digital book and a traditionally published book?

Don't put words in my mouth. I handled the cover design for my books, though the publisher did offer to do it and did convert it into a format that was better suited for a book cover. I wrote technical books, so the publisher also paid for technical assessments to make sure I wasn't wrong along with the editing. Those are very valuable services.

Simply hosting a few MB file (the book) and processing a credit card payment is not enough to justify charging 30%.

But hosting a few dead trees in a warehouse is worth 50% of a book? Amazon is the 300lb gorilla in book sales, so they'll charge what they think they can get away with. If another vendor comes along and gets the name recognition that Amazon has and only takes 20%, then Amazon may change their ways.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that authors have lots of options to get their work out. But the choice is they either get about 5% and have a huge infrastructure behind them to help get their work out, promoted, and looking nice, or doing most of it themselves and getting 70% and hope they have an underground hit that lots of people buy.

Comment Re:from the what-until-they-get-a-load-of-this dep (Score 5, Informative) 292

In traditional book publishing, the author gets about 5% of the list. The publisher sells the book to a retailer for 50% of the list price and the author typically get about 10% of what the publisher sells it for. At least that's what it was in my case. So getting 70% on a self-published book isn't a bad deal. Though editors are still important.

Comment 40 is young. (Score 1) 286

I don't like the term "middle aged". I am 47, but I don't think of my self as old or even middle aged. I haven't lost much of a step over the last 20 years, I can keep up with my son skiing (or he keeps up with me). I still think the same way I always have. Old is a state of mind, I plan on being young forever.

Comment Re:6th sense (Score 2) 99

We had a large 6.8 earth quake in early 2001 in Washington state. Our neighbor and friend had a smallish (about 10-15 lb) dog. When you opened the front door, if she didn't have ahold of her dog, it would bolt for the door and do everything it could to squeeze through the gap and run free for hours. You would try to keep the door barely open, or put your leg in it, but her dog would always do everything it could to get by.

The morning a few hours before the earth quake, she opened the front door and the dog wouldn't go near it. Your example is cool (thanks), but that isn't enough time to be helpful, if there was at least 15 to 30 minutes or so, of warning, then I think it could be useful.

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