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iBookstore rejects Holly Lisle's writing course because she mentions Amazon

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Re: iBookstore rejects Holly Lisle's writing course because she mentions Amazon

#61

Post by scott_s »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #60
scott_s wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a difference between believing someone's honesty and trusting someone's interpretation . I believe she's being honest; that she is telling the truth as she sees it. But I would like to judge for myself what Apple said.

Verily. Here interpretative skills don't appear to be impaired (see her comments on [paraphrasing] 'this is not censorship it's business practice') and there is so little to interpret in being asked [initially] to remove only live links in order to get an ebook allowed that I can't readily see how it's an issue of objectivity. Hence my inclination towards trusting her presentation of the situation. My initial thought…

I think it's more likely than not that her interpretation would agree with mine, but it's still an unknown. The parent post of this thread was asking if we could remove that unknown, so I think it's quite reasonable.

Re: iBookstore rejects Holly Lisle's writing course because she mentions Amazon

#62

Post by domador »

georgemcbay wrote: post #49
rrbrambley wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely not. This is where the line is drawn. I've grown to accept Apple's App Store policies for the sake of keeping app quality high. However, when it comes to distributing content that people actually use to learn new things and enrich their lives, there is absolutely no room for this type of policy. To anyone who is selling their books via Apple: GTFO right now.

"This is where the line is drawn." Really? I mean, yes this is clearly terrible, but if you're surprised by Apple doing this then you haven't been paying much attention the past few years. I don't begrudge people who choose to use Apple products, they certainly have their charms, but I do get slightly annoyed when they are suddenly offended when Apple does something like this because post-App Store Apple pulls crap l…

Not everyone has been following Apple as closely, nor does everyone open up their eyes at the same time. Better late than never, though. (And the more people that do this, the merrier. Maybe this way things will improve some day...)

It's sad to see the awful attitudes a company can get away with when it makes such sleek and wonderful products.

Re: iBookstore rejects Holly Lisle's writing course because she mentions Amazon

#63

Post by w1ntermute »

rrbrambley wrote: post #51
georgemcbay wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"This is where the line is drawn." Really? I mean, yes this is clearly terrible, but if you're surprised by Apple doing this then you haven't been paying much attention the past few years. I don't begrudge people who choose to use Apple products, they certainly have their charms, but I do get slightly annoyed when they are suddenly offended when Apple does something like this because post-App Store Apple pulls crap l…

Please see my response to inerte's comment, if you have not already. It's not that I'm surprised that Apple would do this. I am just shocked that the definition of "book" could change in front of everyone's eyes and the common person will ignore it because they enjoy Apple's "magical" devices.

Shocked? Really? We've been seeing the Reality Distortion Field in effect for years now.

Re: iBookstore rejects Holly Lisle's writing course because she mentions Amazon

#64

Post by domador »

kristianc wrote: post #56
rrbrambley wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference to me is that they're calling this a "bookstore," and the thing that they're selling is supposed to be a new way of consuming the thing that we traditionally know as "books." That's what I used to believe their business was. Now, it's clear that an iBook is not a book. It is a digital material sold to people who like to consume content via their pretty and pricy devices. I agree that Apple makes it fun…

Unless I'm missing something, this is something which other "bookstores" in the offline space do routinely. The Rough Trade store down the road from me sells books which are pretty obviously curated around sections, and according to the preferences of the staff there, and, no doubt, by commercial imperatives too. If they can't make a margin they're happy with, ultimately there is no bookstore. The magical experiences…

A major difference is that an offline bookstore necessitates curation, due to limited physical space. Barring very extreme cases (such as trillions of books requiring petabytes of server space), an online bookstore doesn't require such curation. (An online bookstore could be selective about the titles it highlights in its front pages. But there is no need for making a book completely unavailable through restrictive policies such as these.)

Re: iBookstore rejects Holly Lisle's writing course because she mentions Amazon

#65

Post by ybother »

ThePherocity wrote: post #53
antidoh wrote: post #2

Do we really want our information mediated/censored by this sort of corporate behavior?

You do now. Every book store decides what they are going to sell. We just didn't know about it before. The beauty is that any author can now simply take their books off iBooks and sell it in an open epub format and skip the distributor. Regardless, this is a bullshit move from Apple, and it's starting to wear on me. And that's saying something, because I do love their products and forgive many missteps because I real…

Amazon has gotten into hot water before for NOT censoring or blocking content.

Re: iBookstore rejects Holly Lisle's writing course because she mentions Amazon

#67

Post by SoftwareMaven »

mikecane wrote: post #44
SoftwareMaven wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you don't have to buy your iBooks books from Apple. In fact, I rarely (maybe never) have, but I prefer it's reading experience to the Kindle apps (for whatever reason). I just use Calibre to convert.

>>>And you don't have to buy your iBooks books from Apple. Um, wut? OK, you probably meant e books, but iBooks -- created by iBooks Author -- can be bought only from Apple.

Good point. I meant "books you read in iBooks".

Re: iBookstore rejects Holly Lisle's writing course because she mentions Amazon

#68

Post by taligent »

rrbrambley wrote: post #57
chc wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this different from a legacy bookstore? Apple is way more permissive than they are. You can't just walk into a legacy bookstore with a manuscript and say, "Here, sell this." Major distribution has always meant going through filters. The publishing houses reject most of the stuff that comes through their doors, and bookstores only buy a fraction of the stuff that the publishing houses put out. If you are scanda…

It's different because via Apple's model, you are holding the bookstore in your hands. There isn't an option to go to a different bookstore down the street, or order a book from a website that will send it to you in the mail. I'm thinking about the "ideal" (to Apple) world in which schools just expect content to be consumed this way (text books are a huge and important market), and it's disgusting. And yes, you are r…

What are you talking about ?

There are plenty of alternate options to iBookStore. Nobody is forcing you to use it.

Re: iBookstore rejects Holly Lisle's writing course because she mentions Amazon

#69

Post by ktizo »

ThePherocity wrote: post #53
antidoh wrote: post #2

Do we really want our information mediated/censored by this sort of corporate behavior?

You do now. Every book store decides what they are going to sell. We just didn't know about it before. The beauty is that any author can now simply take their books off iBooks and sell it in an open epub format and skip the distributor. Regardless, this is a bullshit move from Apple, and it's starting to wear on me. And that's saying something, because I do love their products and forgive many missteps because I real…

Every book store decides what they are going to sell.

I am in this case amazed to find a book store refusing to stock a book on professional writing because the book contains details of other book stores that a writer might find useful, or for them to suggest to the author that those elements be removed from the book as a condition of sale.

The comparison is absurd anyway as the main drive for the selection process of what to stock in a brick and mortar bookshop is the limits of physical space in a bookshop, which is not really an issue for ebook stores.

Re: iBookstore rejects Holly Lisle's writing course because she mentions Amazon

#70

Post by taligent »

domador wrote: post #64
kristianc wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless I'm missing something, this is something which other "bookstores" in the offline space do routinely. The Rough Trade store down the road from me sells books which are pretty obviously curated around sections, and according to the preferences of the staff there, and, no doubt, by commercial imperatives too. If they can't make a margin they're happy with, ultimately there is no bookstore. The magical experiences…

A major difference is that an offline bookstore necessitates curation, due to limited physical space. Barring very extreme cases (such as trillions of books requiring petabytes of server space), an online bookstore doesn't require such curation. (An online bookstore could be selective about the titles it highlights in its front pages. But there is no need for making a book completely unavailable through restrictive p…

Your whole argument is wrong.

If book stores are curating simply based on physical space then all of them would pick the top 1000 books in order to maximise profits. But they don't. They curate based on the type of books THEY want to sell and that represents them.

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