An Open Letter to The Book Publishing Industry

Dear Book Publishing Industry,

I purchased The Fighter on DVD when it was released on Tuesday, 15 March 2011. More specifically, my wife Danielle purchased the "Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy," as it was listed, on her day off, from Target. After tax, Danielle paid $24 (rounded). Please note that this was a first day sale price. The same package is now retailing for $30.

With the rise of Netflix/Hulu/Apple TV, my DVD purchasing ways have slowed, and just in time, as the five DVD towers in my living room, which currently hold 262 DVDs, are beginning to take on a life of their own. But from time to time, I still get the urge to buy the "real" copy of a film, especially when I see the Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo.

Why?

Well, the Blu-ray part is obvious. The Standard DVD I probably won't ever use, but the Digital Copy is where I get excited--I open the iTunes Store on my computer, plug in the little code from the card that comes packaged with the two discs, and download the file. That file can then be synced to the various iPads and iPhones and iPods that live in my home, as well as streamed to my Apple TV.

Now, I could have purchased The Fighter, via iTunes, for $20 (this price will drop over time). I also could have rented it via iTunes for $5. I could have watched that digital copy in all of the same places as the $24 physical copy, and I (Danielle) wouldn't have even had to leave the house. But I didn't want the digital copy.

Why?

I don't know, really. Sure, it's partly because I still appreciate the quality of a Blu-ray disc of a film that I enjoyed as much as The Fighter, but is that really it?

Or is it that by going with the physical combo pack, it basically feels like I'm getting three copies of the film for the cost of one?

To be fair, it's probably a combination of both.

So, BPI, why am I going on about a DVD?

I'm a huge fan of David Foster Wallace. On 15 April 2011, his unfinished novel The Pale King will be released. Pre-orders for it have been live for about a month now. I haven't pre-ordered it, though.

Why?

When I read DFW's magnum opus Infinite Jest, I read the physical copy (soft cover). All 1,079 pages of it. As I read, I kept a finger tucked in the back of the book, a placeholder for where I'd left off in the footnotes, which, if you haven't read Infinite Jest, is an essential part of the experience (there are almost 100 pages of footnotes). I'd flip forwards and backwards, forwards and backwards, over and over, for the entire time it took me to finish the book, probably around two months.

As you can imagine, reading a book that weighs 1,106 grams (2 pounds, 7 ounces) in this manner is annoying, to put it mildly.

Enter the iPad.

I've read two of DFW's books on the iPad. Both contained footnotes. I was able to access them by touching a hyperlink in the text, which whisked me to the corresponding footnote in the digital "back" of the book. When I was done, I was able to press a return prompt, which took me back to (roughly) where I had left off (both ebooks had a weird quirk where if the footnote was at the top half of the page, it took me back to the previous page).

Needless to say, this made the experience that much more enjoyable, and it was much easier on the wrists.

Hopefully, you're starting to see my dilemma.

BPI, I know The Pale King contains footnotes. This alone should be enough to sway me towards pre-ordering the digital version.

But a part of me still loves the physical presence of a "real" book, especially one by one of my "Desert Island" authors, just like I still buy CDs from my Desert Island musicians, just like I still buy Blu-ray discs of my Desert Island films.

If only there were a way to combine the two urges.

If only the industry capable of this was hungry enough to realize that the winds of change are a-blowin', as iPads and Kindles and Nooks become more and more popular.

Enough of the nonsense, BPI--on 15 April 2011, why won't I be able to buy The Pale King Combo Pack?

Why?

I've tried to look at it from your aging perspective and it still doesn't make any goddamn sense. Presumably The Pale King Combo Pack would be a shrink-wrapped physical book, inside of which is a card that has three codes on it--one code for iBooks, one code for Amazon, maybe even a code for Nook users--which would allow the buyer to download the ebook of The Pale King from the virtual bookstore of their choosing.

If that doesn't work for you, this card could be inside a smaller shrink-wrapped pocket on the inside of the back cover, if you don't want to take the time (read: spend the money) to shrink wrap the book. Shit, the card could be kept at the register if you don't want to change the book at all.

And yes, BPI, it would be for "free," if by "free" you mean that the presence of this card does not increase the price.

I know, I know--tough for you to swallow.

But here's what I, the consumer, who at the age of 26 already has 4 full-sized bookcases in my one bedroom apartment, is trying to point out to you:

In the iBooks store, The Pale King costs $15, and this price will decrease over time.

In Barnes & Noble, on 15 April, after my Member Discount, I will probably pay close to $20 for the hardcover of The Pale King, and this price will increase eventually.

(And just so you know, and this isn't as fact-based as the other points here, but for the first time in a long time, I'm considering not renewing my B&N membership. Why? I don't do 100% of my book buying at B&N anymore. Not even close.)

And even after taking all of this into account, I would still gladly pay the $20 for the physical version (remember The Fighter on Blu-ray?)--but even more so if I got the ebook too.

Yes, BPI, I know what you're thinking--there's a good chance I'll still buy the hardcover version over the ebook, since I already expressed an unconscious desire to own the "real" version of an admitted favorite.

And I know what else you're thinking--why should you start giving me more product for the same amount of money?

Well, here's what it comes down to: Are you really willing to risk the $5? (Really more, because you don't profit from the B&N Member Discount.)

Better yet--are you willing to risk it for each member of the ever-dissipating group of people who think like me?

While I can't tell you for sure what I will do on 15 April, I can tell you 100% what I will not do:

Purchase both the physical copy and the ebook.

So I guess you're going to wait it out. In a way, that makes sense. No rush to judgement, and all that jazz.

But while you're waiting to see how it all shakes out, I'm going to be falling more and more for the iPad (I got the 2, BPI. So thin! So light!), and iBooks (which I recently started using on my iPhone too--you would be amazed how easy the Retina Display makes it), as well as all of the little conveniences the switch to ebooks brings to my obsessive reading life: Sick in bed? No problem. Wife asleep next to me? Who cares. Started reading on my iPhone, and want to continue reading on my iPad later? It syncs where I left off.

Cool, right?

(And I don't know if you noticed, BPI, but the iBooks catalog just got a whole lot deeper.)

Also worth noting, BPI--I never saw Winter's Bone, an Oscar contender that I absolutely loved, in the theater. I streamed a beautiful HD version of it to my Apple TV. For $5. I watched it on my 42" television, on my nice, comfortable living room couch, my wife next to me in her leather recliner.

Oh, and the new Kanye record? (I know, I know--I'm a slightly hipstery douche who still calls albums "records.") Got it it in the iTunes store. Eleven bucks. The second it was released to the public. Came with a really slick .pdf of the album artwork and all the liner notes, which I was able to check out on my 20" iMac.

This is not a letter asking you to set a precedent, BPI.

This is not a letter asking you to be the one who creates a New World Order.

I just want you to make it easier for me.

I just want to be able to justify spending more money on a less superior version of your product, because it is a product that I can't live without.

Musicians got the message.

The film industry even seems to be coming around.

Are you listening?

Sincerely,
A Reader

Backbone, or the story formerly known as The Boy

A couple of days ago, I began re-reading D.T. Max's New Yorker piece on David Foster Wallace. Someone had reposted it on 21 February, DFW's birthday.

Yesterday morning, I posted a link to the story on my Tumblr--after finishing the piece, I was enamored with this quote:

He wrote to DeLillo that he thought he knew what was missing to get his fiction moving forward: “I believe I want adult sanity, which seems to me the only unalloyed form of heroism available today.”

Coincidentally, yesterday was also the day that someone on Twitter alerted me (us) to the fact that DFW has a new story in the most recent New Yorker, and that the story is now available online. See:

Backbone

Now, if you're an Artificial Night reader, or a reader of 454 W 23rd St New York, NY 10011—2157, the story Backbone isn't new to you. As both of those hyperlinks prove, you know this story already as The Boy.

Apparently, the story has been edited, and is now officially being billed as an excerpt from The Pale King, which is due to be released on 15 April.

Being the awesome people that they are, 454 W 23rd St New York, NY 10011—2157 already has a document ready for us that highlights the additions/subtrations that make Backbone not The Boy.

It isn't a secret that DFW struggled to finish The Pale King, but the fact that Backbone--prose DFW had already written and was reading publicly in 2000--is part of the text really highlights the amount of time he spent with it.

15 April can't come soon enough.

What A Writer Thinks When They See Poorly Branded Technology

Yesterday, Apple refreshed their MacBook Pro line, taking them from drool-worthy to We’re-going-to-get-high-and-listen-to-Miles-Davis (ding! Mad Men reference!). As per the norm, I’m admitting up-front that I’m not qualified enough to espouse on the what and why behind the increased computing power (if you’re anything like me, you’d benefit much more by getting yourself a MacBook Air and/or waiting until they make MBPs more like MBAs, but that’s another blog post). Instead, what I want to do is focus on one specific new feature.

--

Thunderbolt. It’s a new technology from Intel, new to Apple products, and is used, in the most basic sense, to transfer data. Dumbing it down even further, this is what Intel, and Apple, since they’re standing behind it, hopes will eventually replace (be used in conjunction with) your USB port and/or your FireWire port. For people who use external displays, it will also used for that. Thunderbolt is actually pretty neat, as you can see in this info from 9to5 Mac:

Light Peak is significantly faster than any of the other connection technology currently on the market. For comparison, Firewire 400 is 400 Mbps, Firewire 800 is 800 Mbps, USB2 is 480 Mbps, and USB3 (which never appeared on a Mac) is 3.2 Gbps. Light Peak comes in at a whopping 10 Gbps making it close to three times faster than USB 3, and over 10 times faster than Firewire 800. Although this won’t matter too much for Mac users, Light Peak can transfer an entire Blu-Ray movie in under 30 seconds.

Now you’re probably thinking: Wait, you said Thunderbolt. What is Light Peak?

Light Peak is what Intel used as a "code-name" for now-officially-branded Thunderbolt. So I should say, Thunderbolt is Light Peak.

Enter: my frustration.

Any decent writer knows the importance of a good name. If Fight Club had been started by a guy named Gerald Stricklenbocker, rather than Tyler Durden, would it have been quite as believable as an underground boxing cult that was capable of taking over the world? Exactly. The same principle is applied in product branding. Time and time again, products with “good” names sell better than products with shitty names.

Simple. So what’s so bad about Thunderbolt?

First, what we’re talking about here is data transfer. Which we (the unassuming computing public) think of in terms of--speed. Apple’s Thunderbolt info page confirms this. With a connection like this, we use words like “time,” and “seconds,” and “over”: “I’m transferring it over USB.”

However, Thunderbolt, which appears to be a portmanteau of “Thunder” and “Lightning Bolt,”*** which is confirmed by the symbol used in the logo and on the computer:

is comprised of two words that don't help us to instantly think of speed. We've got an auditory descriptor—after all, we hear thunder, and “bolt” which does nothing to help our sense of speed, because it is a visual descriptor--we see lightning.

***It was just pointed out to me that "Thunderbolt" is actually a word:

So while it is not a portmanteau, it still doesn't make sense.

So what about what we see when we hear Thunderbolt? The logo/icon above, compounds the confusion. If it looks familiar, it should:

OK, maybe not the last one, but the first two? That’s the symbol (international?) for DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE!, which I suppose could be seen as a symbol of speed (maybe? like in the TOUCH THIS AND YOU'LL DIE FAST sense?), but I’m not sure it’s got the connotation that Intel/Apple wants, even if it could. To me, it has, and always will be synonymous with—DANGER! Even Marilyn Manson thought so:

And DANGER!, or Marilyn Manson, isn't what you want people thinking of before they plug in their $1,000 external monitor, or transfer their collection of 1,600 cat pictures.

--

So Thunderbolt doesn’t sound right, and it doesn’t look right. What would work better, you ask?

How about what Intel “code-named” it?

Light Peak!

Because the data transferred over it (OH MY GOD! REMEMBER THE TIME WE DRESSED THE CAT UP LIKE A POLICE OFFICER!) moves at the speed of—light!

When you use it you get—peak performance!

If you do a Google Image search for “Light Peak,” 5 of the first 20 results include this photo:

We still need an icon, right? That image, specifically the ends of the 4 wires, each bursting with light—would be goddamn perfect. I made an (incredibly) crude drawing of it:

It’s got marketing built into it, too:


It’s not USB 2, what we use now, or USB 3, what’s coming, it’s Light Peak—it must be faster—IT’S GOT 4 WIRES!

(And I’m sure people who know way more than I do about technology are shaking their head right now, but c’mon, you know it’s true—this is how people (your mom, my mom, his mom, her mom) think.)

Maybe, as usual, I'm putting too much thought into it.

Since there aren’t even any products on the market (yet) that can take advantage of Light P—Thunderbolt technology, it is impossible to speculate how successful it will be. Maybe it will be great, after all, speed junkies will be speed junkies, regardless of the name.

But technology isn’t thought-up and marketed for/to speed junkies. They will always buy the latest and fastest. Technology and the accompanying marketing strategies are crafted very, very specifically so that your mom and my mom and his mom and her mom will have an easy-as-pie choice to make when faced with something they don't truly understand, but know they need, all while not wanting to look stupid:

2? 3? 4! Yes, 4! That’s what I need!

The technology enthusiast in me is excited for the speed Thunderbolt promises.

But the writer in me can’t ignore the possibility that Thunderbolt might turn out to be a—power outage.