Open letter to e-book publishers

Dear Macmillan and other arrogant publishing companies,

I have a Kindle, first edition. I am part of a target audience for the Kindle and similar devices: I travel a lot, I’m overeducated, and an early adopter of technology (for another example, I bought my first Tivo in 2000).

Recently, there has been a lot of coverage on how the iPad and Nook allow publishers to charge more than the $9.99 that Amazon wants to charge for e-books. Amazon believes that $9.99 is a fair price for an e-book, as the royalty and distribution model don’t require much capital. Macmillan and others believe that this price point is too low, and that books should be more like $12.99-$14.99. This is absurd.

Browsing at Amazon right now, I see that NY Times bestsellers are between….yup, $12.99 and $14.99. So Macmillan would have me buy an e-book for the same price (or even more in some cases) as a hardcover book? The utility of the e-book is less than the hardcover book. I can get money back out of a hardcover book by re-selling it, I can give it to a friend, I can light it on fire and warm my hands. Based on this diminished utility, unless I only read when I travel, why would I buy an e-book? People generally like hardcover books and they don’t require a $200+ reader in order to be able to read them.

I think twice about buying a book at $9.99 unless it’s something I really want to read; at $12.99 or $14.99, I will wait for it to be $7 in a few months. I can read one of  hundreds of thousands of other books in the meantime. Good luck with this totally asinine pricing.

Yours truly,

jdl

Marketers Love Me

If only I had the perfect scent, maybe I’d do my laundry.

Oh wait.

No more excuses.

Well, if my scent wins….

Vote for me! Help me get my laundry done!

Punk Rock Marketing Tips

Marketing Tips from the Vendors at Philadelphia’s Punk Rock Flea Market

In case you didn’t know, mainstream marketing techniques go out the window when a band of hipsters gather together to sell items at an event called the Punk Rock Flea Market.

Although it seems that this is an unstated rule –  i.e., punk rock promotion is not required by R5 productions, the company that hosts the Punk Rock Flea Market in Philadelphia – Punk Rock Flea Market vendors seem to promote their tables with anti-capitalistic flair.

At least, that’s what we discovered after perusing the list of sellers that will be offering their goods at the Starlight Ballroom this weekend.

Rather than become “sellouts,” these vendors have all-but-forgotten about those manipulative strategies endorsed by profit-seeking companies and/or vendors at “regular” flea markets (those capitalistic bastards!).

Without futher ado, here’s a short list of punk rock marketing tips from this weekend’s sellers:

Continue reading…

Summer or Bust.

Try as I might, writing isn’t exactly paying the bills here at the casa de groovy.  The dreaded day job, despised as it may be, is barely keeping me afloat on the great sea of financial ruin.  But as of July 11^th, it will be sink or swim–when my employer of nine years decides to either go back to the bargaining table with my union or to go for the lockout and send us to the unemployment line.  It aint lookin good.

In all the chaotic back and forth arguments, meetings, pamphlets, automated messages and now the worst feeling in the world–waiting–the arrival of summer is upon me without much fanfare.  Hot days, cold drinks.  Concerts and parties with friends.  Trips to exotic destinations.  Ah.  Yes…

Ahem.

I can barely make minimum payment on the bills, let alone afford such luxuries as vacation.  When the economy takes a nosedive, inevitably so does the concept of a social life.  So what am I to do?  Count the moths fluttering from my pockets?  Chitchat with the creditors?  No.  I will not sit idly by while the summer slips by without acknowledgment.  This I vow right here and now, dear readers.  With this thought in mind I have fashioned a summer itinerary of sorts.  Forget Cancun.  Drop the bar-hop.  Everything you need is right here…

Continue reading…

Toilet Paper Is Archaic & Disgusting

There you are, sitting on the couch, wrapped up comfortably in your snuggie, snacking on some delicious deviled ham thanks to your countertop magician when nature calls.

So you hop on your rascal scooter and make your way to the bathroom. I guess that meal of diced, chopped, and minced nuts just went right through you.

As you sit down to take care of business, you ponder the history of toilet paper. Has this stuff really been around for that long? Did it really have splinters in it at one point!? The sorry state of toilet paper innovation has made you angry enough to violently confront a hooker.

Sure, we have the bidet. But let’s be honest with ourselves, an anus-cleaning plumbing fixture just seems unnatural. The world has been crying out for a new generation of toilet paper tech, and finally someone has stepped up to the plate. The Comfort Wipe has arrived. Has is really taken almost 130 years for this breakthrough?

As you wipe with the wonder stick, you can’t help but realize that in the end, you’re not really innovating anything. You’re just putting toilet paper on a stick. Maybe it’s time to move beyond paper. As Rabelais once remarked, “He who uses paper on his filthy bum, will always find his ballocks lined with scum“.

Forward: Open Letter from a Distressed Bookseller

Shaman Drum Ann Arbor

Column: Open Letter from a Distressed Bookseller
Owner of Shaman Drum: “This is our darkest hour”
BY KARL POHRTFEBRUARY 17, 2009

Karl Pohrt, owner of Shaman Drum Bookshop.
This fall and winter Shaman Drum Bookshop went into a steep financial decline. Textbook sales declined $510K from last year. We managed to cut our payroll and other operating expenses by $80K, but that didn’t begin to cover our losses.

There was some good news. Our trade (general interest) book sales on the first floor were actually up in December from last year by 10%, which is extraordinary given what many other retailers were reporting. And trades sales in January were up 15%. Still, this hardly compensates for our losses in textbook sales.

The evaporation of our position has been astonishingly swift. We had been holding relatively even financially until September. Suddenly we’ve moved into the red.

I sort of saw this coming.

In July, 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts published “Reading At Risk,” a report detailing the decline of literary reading in America. This was followed by a second report in November, 2007, “To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence,” chronicling “recent declines in voluntary reading and test scores alike, exposing trends that have severe consequences for American society.”

Read more

On whether to hire a tax professional…

…from the Legal Times…

Shot in the Foot

Income tax mistakes are often made by people who think they’re so smart.

Legal Times

February 09, 2009

Overwhelmed by E-mail: New Year’s Resolutions for Gmail

I am google’s biggest fan. No really.  Google’s seemingly, endless capacity paired with its A+++ search tool is a hoarder’s dream come true.

Exhibit 1:  The 2,000+ e-mails in my inbox for my main (personal) e-mail account.

Who knows how many more e-mails I’d find, archived away, if I ever were to click on an unassuming label that I created entitled “CAH.”  [As innocuous as an acronym may be, the CAH or Crimes Against Humanity label is sorta like my version of DND or Do Not Disturb.]

Exhibit 2:  My loose morals when it comes to giving away my e-mail address.

A website that requires me to register with my e-mail?  Who cares?  Sign me up!  Heck, I’d even enter my credit card numbers for the right sites (they’re simply for validation purposes, right?)

May as well not stop my benevolence there…

Based on my “non-spending spree” at the store, JCrew.com probably didn’t expect much when it asked for my e-mail address in exchange for virtual promotions and gifts that I will never be able to afford.  Don’t judge a girl’s wants by her cash flow.  This girl is ever-so-generous when it comes to doling out KBs, MBs, or GBs for high-end fashion spam.

You too: Gap.com, Amazon.com, NYTimes Headlines, Sephora, Banana Republic, etc.   Bring. It.

Exhibit 3:  The time I spend searching – well, it’s not-quite-productive… but it’s also not-quite-wasteful, especially if you’re in front of a computer all day at work.

My Armor: Jet Fuel

I guess I could say that I’ve grown fond of starting my day with coffee and a mission…an excavation mission!

Armed with jet fuel, I attempt to find the one or two important e-mails buried among the pages of others that will go unread. Those bold, unclicked reminders of all of the excess that I can’t bring myself to delete.

Because.     Who.     Knows.

Who knows when I’ll need to remember the name of someone who was on a class e-mail list of mine three years ago.

Where did I begin? Where am I at? Is it really 4, wait, 5 in the morning?   Do I really have to go into work tomorrow?

Oh yes, my New Year’s resolutions for gmail:

• Add Tags:  Tags will do for labels what labels did for folders –> i.e. Get rid of the stupid drop down box!  Tags mean autocomplete.  Autocomplete means inefficiency.

Once there are tags, I could go either way between the following suggestions:

Get rid of labels completely: Tags = Labels. No drop down menus.  No DIY labels trees (e.g. Label 1 = Family/Requires Response; Label 2 = Family/No Response Required).  You have a form to add them at the bottom of the e-mail.  Tags serve same sorting function and can assign many tags to one e-mail.  Could also do a “tag” & “category” hierarchy similar to wordpress.

OR

• Keep the labels and use tags as a complement. Implement tags as a hybrid between the google search function and the labels. (See: this suggestion – 2 years ago!)

Happy 2009!  And, may I get up in time for work tomorrow…

Get Rich Quick with Web 2.0 (Part 1): Network & Chat at the Watercooler – A How-To Guide on LinkedIn and Typing (I mean, Twittering)

I’m simply boggled by the multitudes of articles out there that are dedicated to teaching people how to use “social media 2.0.”  If people take the time to sign up for the site, enter their name, their e-mail, create a password, verify that they’re human(ness)…don’t you think they should be smart enough to know how to use the website?

Judging by the literature that’s out there, it doesn’t look like it.  Instead, it looks like marketing professionals need to learn how to use these tools for marketing.  Human resource professionals need to learn how to use these tools for sourcing and recruiting candidates.  PR professionals need to learn how to use these tools for feeding information.  And, the casual, narcissistic user needs to learn how to strategically gather more followers, connections, or fans while staying true to his or her casual, narcissistic self.  (Note:  a few of those blog authors would learn a few things if their links were a little more user friendly, don’t you think?  It’s a little lesson we learned awhile ago thanks to evil beet!)

Therefore, in this series of articles, nonpretentious will be your meta guide through the guides as we take a look at what the “pros” can teach us on how to use these so-called “social” media sites…the first two we attack?  Well, obviously LinkedIn & Twitter! Continue reading…

Would you like to know what “financial crisis” means?

I know I did.

If you have not listened to the This American Life Episode #365, I highly recommend it.  It’s informative, impartial, and interesting.  (iii reflects !!!)

My favorite part of the program was the 2nd piece on credit default swaps.
Ira tells* us that “one way to think about this product is this: if bad mortgages got the economy sick, these next things you’re about to hear about spread the sickness into an epidemic. these are credit default swaps.”

And, Alex Blumberg says*, “Now normally when you think of physicists inventing scary things, atomic weapons come to mind. And credit default swaps have been called [by Warren Buffett]… financial weapons of mass destruction.”

*tells and says: what i heard & transcribed. but, have a listen for yourself!