Welcome to Fail Month, apparently

[oloriel]

I admit that I was mildly amused by the most recent Amazon fail. For those who don't know, Amazon.de apparently sent out a few hundred pre-ordered copies of the most recent A Song of Ice and Fire instalment last week. Official publication date: July 12th. The same apparently happened - on a smaller scale - with Amazon.jp. Afterwards, several German bookshops also put their copies of A Dance with Dragons (that is, the book in question) on the shelves and sold them.


Personally, I don't think it's a big fail, but then I still keep trying to finish the first book and just. can't. arse. myself. unless I'm linked to the CTG machine and even then it's a struggle -- anyway, so I don't actually care. I do remember waiting impatiently for various instalments of Harry Potter, though, so I understand about the plight of fans who've been waiting for a book for a long time. Typically, my first reaction was rather "Oh those lucky people must be so happy" rather than "OH NOES, SOMEONE WILL POST SPOILERS!!1!".

But it's apparently a big fail from the POV of the publishers (OK, I kind of see that) and the author (well, that's his prerogative), who put up an LJ post along the lines of "Heads will roll" (no, literally. There has been mention of heads mounted on spikes. In the comments, additionally, of golden crowns and balls cut off and fed to the goats. Incidentally, I am not certain that goats would eat balls - swine, gods yes, they'll eat anything but coffee grounds and citrus fruits*, but goats? - but then I also doubt that you could, in this or any other world, get a cooking fire hot enough to melt gold... I digress). - I'd link, but I don't want the pingback bot to alert the angry hordes of GRRM fans to my little ramble here, so I won't. --

Anyway, you wouldn't believe how much that bothers me. Heck, I don't believe it myself. It's not my fandom, after all, and I mostly just keep vacillating between "wow, that author sucks for hating on fan fiction indiscriminately" and "hm, ok, he actually asked for linguists to develop a conlang for the HBO series, maybe he doesn't suck quite so badly". (I know all these things because while I am not a fan, several people on my flist are and I remember stuff, whether I care or not.) Well, after the George W. Bush rhetorics I'm back on the "sucks" swing for good.
Not that it matters.
I mean, I know he's just blustering. Obviously. What may actually happen, or not, I wouldn't know, is that Amazon.de and .jp, and possibly the independent booksellers if they actually manage to find them from the US, get sued. No actual heads are going to roll or be "crowned"; no balls are going to be cut off and fed to the goats (or swine).

So why does it bother me so much? I have no idea. Perhaps it's just because I don't like the guy. Or perhaps it's because I kind of find it embarrassing by proxy when people do that kind of thing - that is, bluster and threaten, no matter what the reason. I find it particularly embarrassing when they do so in some kind of official function: I can kind of understand when the fans, who have been waiting for what, seven years?, for this book, get angry and emotional that others are already reading when they have to wait for two more weeks, because two weeks can be a long time, especially when you're trying to avoid spoilers. But the author? I don't buy the "he'll loose money because people will put up illegal online copies and then nobody will buy the book anymore" thing (like that might not just as well happen after the street date). Quite honestly, either people will read an illegal copy (out of impatience, say, because a legal copy isn't available to them yet or because they have all the other books in softcover so they're waiting to buy the next one as a softcover, too²) but still buy the book as soon as they're able (just as people may stream episodes of TV series they don't get where they are, but will nonetheless buy the DVD once it's out), or they wouldn't buy/have bought a legal copy anyway. This doesn't mean that I approve of piracy; I just think that the real problem is elsewhere.
But I digress again.

Anyway, I don't buy the "loss of money" argument, not on the scale that's propagated at any rate. I kind of see the "bestseller list" point (as in, bestseller lists may only count copies sold after the official publication date, so if the book is leaked earlier, those copies aren't counted) - although I have to wonder, do copies sold in Germany and/or Japan actually make it onto the New York Times Bestseller List? (This one's a genuine question, btw.) And how relevant are 180 copies (that's the number of books Amazon.de apparently sent out early) in terms of bestselling lists? (Another non-rhetoric question.) This may be the naïve view of someone who only dreams about writing bestsellers instead of actually doing it (or even actively trying, at the moment), but I would've thought that if you're talking bestsellers, you're talking about several thousands of copies, in which case two hundred can't have that much of an impact. And how much of a difference does it make whether you're "the #1 NYT bestseller" or just somewhere else in the Top 10, particularly with genre fiction (which people will either read no matter what, or won't read no matter what)? And if a place on bestseller lists is actually in any way relevant, isn't it just for reasons of publicity in the end? And can't a "scandal" like this generate just as much (if not more) publicity, so monetarily it's all the same?

Is anyone still reading this? Probably not. Time to come to a conclusion. For whatever reason, as I said, I'm terribly annoyed by the "If we find out who is responsible, we will mount his head on a spike"³ - in a way that I wouldn't be annoyed if the author had said, instead, "we are considering to take legal action" or even "we are taking legal action", even though that would amount to the same (or actually, in the real world, to more). So it's likely not just my vague dislike of the author interfering, but rather my inner pacifist or my general dislike for martial rhetoric in not-entirely-obviously-ironic context. At any rate, to me it comes across as unprofessional, graceless, and, quite honestly, stupid.

Does the author have every right to be angry? Gods, yes. Who am I to forbid him, or anyone else, to think, write or say what he wants? As long as he doesn't actually go and behead - or go and pay someone to behead - some poor sod at Amazon.de, how he reacts to this kerfluffle is entirely his own decision.
But do I have to like that reaction? No! Can I take it as yet further proof that This Is Not My Ship? Hell yes!
Does it matter? - Of course not. I have no illusions concerning the weight of my word in general, or even just in my small world: The people on my flist who're into the fandom will surely stay there - I doubt anything I'll say will make them second-guess their liking for those books. (Would I like that? Sure! But I don't think it's bloody likely.) The people on my flist who aren't, already aren't. Might I ruin the fun for someone? I suppose that's possible, but honestly, if your enjoyment of a fandom is dependent on my sharing it, something is clearly going wrong...
So does it matter? No. But this is my journal and if I care to express my irrelevant opinion, I can do that. (If I actually were an official book reviewer for a newspaper or something, I'd probably be a lot nicer. I'm a big softie, actually. I just rant here because I know it doesn't seriously hurt anyone - it takes quite a bit to make me so aggressive IRL.)


As for the Amazon Fail, I'm still mildly amused, and still congratulating the lucky fans who got their copies early, and still wishing the others that they'll manage to escape the spoilers. And that's that. Look how generous I am.

- - -

Next topic!

I was initially completely indifferent when the first posts about the LOTRFF chaos showed up: I never worked with LOTRFF at all; I may have read a story or two there, for the MEFAs, as the badly thought-out page layout looks kinda familiar (hint: grey script on black is not the best of ideas, particularly if you're dealing with great amounts of text), but that's about it. So I pretty much just shrugged.

Within a few hours, however, it transpired that this was actually a failfest of epic proportions. I'm too lazy to sum it up, but fortunately I don't have to: esteliel wrote a fine article here; if you want more, you can have a collection of related links here. Long story short: The owner of a LOTR fanfic archive sold said archive (which is her right, though I disagree with the way it was handled) to an investor who plans to make money with said archive (which is not a good idea, whatever else you may think about the guy). She, apparently, did not research him as well as she might have; he, apparently, is completely unaware of who he's dealing with in every direction...

Since then, I've been avidly reading along, because even though I have nothing to do with the concerned archive, it's been getting exciting. Which is actually why I posted those two links: I think this is so exciting that even people who are not in the fandom might find them educating and/or entertaining. So much fail! So much ignorance!


And, to be honest, I am quite proud of being part of this fandom right now. Because yes, we may look harmless and mostly we're just playing around, but we are also intelligent and well-informed (better, obviously, than Mr. Investor here who thought it'd be a good idea to cash in on fan fiction based on the literary property of possibly one of the most litigious (AWESOME NEW WORD I LEARNED THERE!) copyright owners around. And - get this - who thought he'd escape the danger of lawsuits by registering his business in the UK rather than the US, showing how utterly clueless he is of what he's dealing with). And occasionally we're well-organised, too. Figure that someone who apparently used to work for Facebook didn't expect that...
And we're still nice enough to inform him of the potential trouble he's heading into. I mean, we could just quietly let him think he's about to strike gold, withdraw our own content, make popcorn and watch while the Tolkien Estate sued him for all he's worth or while he got into major trouble because whoopsie, his precious content (what would be left of it after most people withdrew their stories...) contained such dangerous stuff as, well, everything you may find in fanfic - kinks of all shapes and sizes, RPF, incest, slash, het pr0n, you name it.

Well, ok, "we" are not just doing it because we're such good people. Partly "we" are pissed off because an outsider is trying to cash in on "our" collective efforts - writing fanfic is no less hard work than writing o-fic****, and while most fanfic writers are happy to write with no revenue but reviews and fandom fame, writing with no revenue while someone else is making money from it is rather a different matter. Partly "we" are afraid that once one fandom site captures the legal attention of the Tolkien Estate, all others may get into trouble as well, justified or not. Partly "we" want to make clear that just because "we" occasionally name ourselves "fangirls", we're not children with no clue about business and legal issues and even, God forbid, our own rights.
I mean, I myself? I am totally watching this in delight because the combination of "people on my side being awesome" and "people I generally don't like being foolish" is just, well, pleasant. Not particularly charitable, that.
But there's still some part where, I think, "we" genuinely want to keep someone from harm. At least, that's what the great amount of constructive criticism and questioning suggests. If everyone was just in it for the drama and bloodshed, things would look quite different.

There would be more talk about heads on spikes, for instance...


Ah, fandom. Keep being awesome. Or batshit. Whatever, as long as you are.

- - -

*Yes, really!

²I don't know why publishers don't seem to realise that. I mean, I am the impatient sort of person who will buy the hardcover or the over-sized deluxe softcover just to bloody own it already - but I know several people who won't, who want all the books of the same series on their shelf to look like each other and who do have the willpower to wait for the appropriate paperback edition no matter how long it takes, or who'll read the book elsewhere - borrow a friend's copy, go to the local library, or yes, read some online version of, erm, questionable legality - and then (and this is the important part) still buy the paperback edition of a book they already know by then just to make up the set, so the author and the publisher will still get their money.

³There, now you can google that line if you want to read the original entry and don't already know where to find it, so there's no need to link anymore.

****whatever GRRM appears to believe.

Comments

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Assuming the "at" was supposed to be an "as": THANK you! I was beginning to fear that I was the only one who saw a problem with that.
Because yeah, there surely are ways to handle something like this more professionally. (I don't recall JKR threatening to Adava Kedavra anyone back when the Deathly Hallows spoilers, let alone the Carpet Book, showed up...)

And yeah, same here. The Fremdschäm-Faktor would be so much higher if I actually were a fan...

Re: lotrfanfiction.com

Oh yes. I have to admit I'm all in it for the Schadenfreude.

Although I feel horrible for the people who have to withdraw their stories/ delete their accounts now, particularly those who didn't think of saving their reviews first - I lost all the reviews I got on a fanfic at the SWG when I accidentally clicked the wrong button, which was really painful - and that just one story. Doing that for potentially everything you ever wrote in the fandom must be a bit like cutting your own foot off. After all, those reviews are the only payment most of us get for writing fanfic (aside from the warm happy glow of a job well done, or done anyway)...

But watching that guy still not getting it, after multiple (surprisingly civil and patient) warnings and explanations? That really is quite fun. Can't wait for the next round of replies, excuses and explanations... *slightly guilty look*

[satismagic.livejournal.com]

Urgh, yeah, typing fail. As. Not at. I guess it's Freudian typo because I'm pissed at his mindset and behaviour. And still deeply disappointed in his writing.

And no, I promise you -- you're not the only one. An Estonian friend and I spent a whole morning o_O over that one.

Schadenfreude, oh ja. Love the long list of the kerfuffle ... when I spread the word, there was pretty much only what he had said and Oshun's post. And now. Wow.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

spiced_wine and elfscribe5 also reported on the mess very early on - I think Siân's entry was the first place where I heard about this (and, back then, only thought "huh, whatever" because I was never involved in LotRFF). And now, just a few days later... this. I can't help feeling smug whenever someone who really should know better gets bitten royally by the "net community", or, in this case, fandom...