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Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has the skinny:

In short: someone in Amazon has utter shit for brains.

Authors such as Jaci Burton, Maya Banks, Larissa Ione and Stephanie Tyler have reported that since being stripped of their sales rankings, their titles are no longer found in searches on Amazon.com. MetaWriter is also compiling a list of titles that have been stripped of their sales rank.

When pressed for a reason, Amazon.com’s customer service department told YA author Mark Probst:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

What, I ask, the fucking fuckhell? Many an Amazon customer is infuriated, and the #amazonfail hashtag on Twitter has pretty much become the only thing worth following. What to do, what to do?

Well, if you’re the Smart Bitches, you set up the Amazon Rank Google Bomb. That’s why they call ‘em Smart, see? Seriously, thoguh. Amazon? What the fuck are you thinking? De-listing sales rankings for GLBT and erotic romance books, thus excluding them from search? Bad move. Having search results that look like this? Even worse.

More talking to the press. This time, Publishers Weekly on Bringing Comics to the Amazon Kindle:

Defendini said that publishers need to “figure out how technology changes what a book is and how the reader can interact with it on a fundamentally different level, not just as passive engagement.”

I was a huge fan of Hulu on Boxee, and as a result of Hulu pulling out, I have really stopped seeing Hulu as a viable source of content for me, since I’d much rather watch programming on my large television screen than on my computer. Instead, I’ve been using services like iTunes on my Apple TV, completely sidestepping the content providers’ ad-revenues. I prefer the lack of ads and the better quality (and yes, quality on iTunes has gotten better, to the point that I now consider BitTorrenting these shows to be more of a hassle than using iTunes, a revision on my previous position, despite the fact that the shows are still DRM-infested. If I want to send something to a friend, I’ll then go through the trouble of firing up the ol’ BT client), but it does come at a monetary price. The ads on Hulu are a smaller price to pay—it’s a fair trade—but I do take a huge exception to Hulu telling me that I can’t use my TV for watching their content—that I HAVE to watch things on their terms, only on the device they want me to use.

As someone working in a similar industry, and facing similar problems, I understand the content providers’ hands being tied, in terms of their being dependent on the business model that things like Hulu potentially cannibalize, and I also understand that change at large corporations is not easy—it takes time and planning to turn a big ship around. But honestly, I can’t see how Hulu on Boxee hurts their bottom line: they’re still getting ad impressions, and in extreme cases like mine, where I don’t have a cable subscription at all to begin with, ad impressions via Hulu on Boxee are not cannibalizing ad impressions on the broadcast networks.

While my case is probably the exception for now, as less tech savvy people start to realize that things like Boxee are out there, and are very easy to use, that situation will change. It’s untenable for me to pay a cable company for a slew of channels I don’t want, when the specific content I do want is individually available for me online. As the economy gets worse, and people start cutting down on their expenses, alternatives like Hulu on Boxee may very well become the norm. Content providers would be well served to work with outfits like Boxee, instead of flat-out shutting them down. The long term benefits are evident, but the network execs need to start looking beyond this financial quarter—or this season’s ratings—to be able to see the forest for the trees.

Boxee has now implemented what amounts to a work-around to the absence of Hulu on their software, and I applaud them for it. Time will tell if the fight they’ve got coming will be one they win. I sure hope so.

Megan Messinger has posted a good piece on Tor.com outlining the recent minor shitstorm that George R. R. Martin has started by essentially telling his detractors to back the fuck off, and let him write his books in peace, and at his own damn pace. Since the rampant sense of entitlement so prevalent in today’s society—and in fan communities particularly—is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, I couldn’t help but chime in in the comments section.

Additionally—and I say this as a creative professional who generally pans the idea of the “creative genius” stereotype that is commonly ascribed to creative types—creativity is not a spigot that can be turned on or off at will. Some are better than others at channeling their thoughts into a cohesive work on a regular basis, others truly struggle with it (I’m very much in this last group, fwiw). Again, it’s the height of arrogance to sit there as a consumer and pass judgement on someone else’s inner world.

Go check out the rest of it at “Fed Up? So Are They“ on Tor.com.

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Publishers Weekly about Tor.com‘s comics content. The piece featuring the interview has now gone live—just in time for Comic Con! If I remember correctly, I think I may have been misquoted at the end where I talk about “…the creative-commons inspired Cory Doctorow-ish kind of ethos,” but it’s more of a mash-up of things I did say anyway, so no harm done. Anyway, go check it out.

Tor.com Offers New Sci-fi and Fantasy Webcomics

There’s a fascinatiing conversation going on on Tor.com right now about the Espresso Print-on-demand book-making machine and its implications for readers. Check it out here.

Warren Ellis does some thinking out loud regarding social networks and micro-blogging:

So, are people rolling their own private microblogging networks yet? And knocking together mobile pages and writing/hacking desktop apps to work with their private microblogging networks yet? It would seem to me to be the obvious outgrowth of the Twitter phenomenon: ambient communication for secret societies.

I would love to have a private Twitter network for just my friends. Apps like TweetDeck serve to compartmentalize tweets, but not to compartmentalize the whole network.

via Warren Ellis » Secret Twitter Society.

I’ve been saying we’d see a proof-of-concept for a high-res, bendable OLED or similar display before 2009 was out, but I didn’t expect it to be announced this soon. I can totally see an e-reader being made out of this material:
Contrast – A Sony OLED VAIO Laptop Concept from Sony Insider on Vimeo.

The Contrast Vaio laptop uses a foldable seamless OLED for the display and the keyboard, but as the videos show the keyboard can fade away and the whole thing can display something else. This concept has no restrictions on layout and size, and is extremely durable and shock resistant. Like the other Contrast product concepts, it is made of high performance flexible bioplastic.

And that will be the end of the newspaper and magazines as we know them.

via Contrast – The Flex OLED VAIO Laptop Of Our Dreams? | Sony Insider.

One of my goals for this year is to not let The Sleekness lie fallow, and one of the ways I’ll be achieving that is by stealing from myself: I’ll be doing a lot of cross-posting from my blogging (such as it is) on Tor.com. To wit:

New York Comic Con (Feb. 6-8) has published its schedule of events on its site. Check out the full list of panels and talks here, and start planning your weekend. Tor.com is holding a panel (moderated by yours truly—yeah, somebody was clearly off their meds when they approved this), focusing on online fiction and the changing role of traditional print publishers on the internet. More or less. Your mileage may vary. We may just end up talking about medieval siege engines or something.

Regardless, if you’re in town for the con, do drop by and say “hi.”

Tor.com—NYCC programming schedule goes live, or: I’m in way over my head.

Yeah, those stinkin’ pirates are really hurting the entertainment industry. Killing profit margins, destroying lives—oh, wait: the movie industry raked in a record-setting $9.78 billion in 2008? The best-selling album mp3 album on Amazon this year was composed of music that could also be had for free, legally, under a Creative Commons license? Madness! Madness, I tell you!

The Pirate’s Dilemma has a spot-on analysis, as usual. Of particular interest to me is Mason’s likening of vinyl records (whose sales apparently doubled this past year) to books: “Records are like books – they are souvenirs of ideas.” Indeed. But that still means a smaller, more selective audience, looking for a high-quality product produced in smaller numbers with collectors in mind, versus the cheap, mass market (no pun intended) alternative.

Mason continues by calling attention to the plight of the college yearbook: “The yearbook business, for example, has evaporated thanks to social networks”. I hadn’t really thought about that, but it makes perfect sense, and not necessarily only for the reason that The Economist states. Aside from the archival capacity of sites like Facebook and MySpace to keep the same mementos previously housed between the covers of a yearbook (pictures, etc.), the fact that social networks keep people connected despite the separation that comes after graduation makes the need for a commemorative tome practically nil. I don’t need memories of Susie Jenkins; Susie’s still in my life—I see her status updates every day, for better or for worse.