@Robotech_Master: I was indeed.
@fraying: I do think that's a big part of the appeal. House is every pissed-off smart person's id.
@Steven Edwards: We're expediting! And thanks for the reminder that for some readers, digital editions aren't just a convenience, they're a necessity.
@Blue Tyson: Very true.
@NaomiTydeus: Yep, those are some of the reasons.
@Michael_GR: Gee, I could have sworn I very specifically said that we're avidly interested in not getting locked into a single ebook platform. What gave you the impression we're only interested in the Kindle?
The question of what books get made available for what platforms is a complicated one right now -- everybody's engaged in an enormous multiparty negotation over who pays for conversion costs, what the final price points will be, and dozens of other legal and logistical terms. It's an enormous amount of work and I'm glad I'm not involved in it. As a consumer I'm eager for as many of our books to be available in as many formats as possible. Meanwhile, I note that we, too, use Sony Readers; the company bought several hundred of them for its employees, partly just to reduce the amount of paper we go through reproducing manuscripts for in-house reading. (Manuscripts of books we're _publishing_ -- do not, please, send us submission manuscripts in Sony Reader format.)
@namanintx: I think there's a range of attitudes, and even among those authors who have a problem with fanfic, not all of them are on a "high horse" about it. I winced when I realized I'd represented Jo Walton's position so simply. In fact my understanding is that she doesn't object to its existence, and she certainly appreciates that lots of her closest friends are involved in it; she just finds it hard to cope with the idea of her own characters and settings being appropriated, and she hopes people who like her and her work will respect that. It's hard to see that as being on a "high horse."
@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: Actually, if I recall correctly, I set up the gopher server in the immediately pre-web era of 1991 or 1992. I don't know if the misunderstanding is my fault or that of the interview transcript, but the original Tor web site set up in 93 or 94 was in fact a real web site.
I don't make any claims to be some kind of technological whiz; I don't even have any programming skills. All this stuff was done with help.
(1) I was the editor who acquired John Stith's novel MANHATTAN TRANSFER.
(2) I've helped run science fiction's Hugo Awards.
(3) Hell, I've _won_ a Hugo Award.
So my question is, what the hell is a "Hugo Award Honorable Mention"? Stith's novel wasn't one of the finalists for that year's award. Sounds to me like some publicist is getting seriously carried away.
A Fire Upon the Deep is a great, great science fiction novel, but it was published during the first Bush administration. If it reflects a generation of the Internet, it's mid-period Usenet, with its slow-propagating galactic newsgroups and colorful Serdar Argic-like characters such as Twirlip of the Mists.
