Day: January 29, 2010

On Twitter a couple of minutes ago someone expressed annoyance that my books aren’t directly sold by Amazon, which seemed odd, because they were available just yesterday. But I check and sure enough they weren’t there (Amazon has its “available from these sellers”) line up. I checked other Tor authors and it seemed they were gone too. I noted that on Twitter and then someone pointed me to this news post, which suggests many books from Macmillan are off Amazon at the moment.

Also, just for fun I went to the Amazon site to see if any of my books are on the Kindle section. Nope, they seem to be all gone, as do the books of other Tor authors. I hope this doesn’t affect the folks who have already bought my Tor books for the Kindle.

What does this mean? Well, it could mean nothing; it might be a glitch, as has happened before. This was my first thought and continues to be my primary suspicion at the moment. Alternately Amazon might be trying to screw with Macmillan in some way (or alternately, Macmillan is trying to screw with Amazon), but it doesn’t seem like a very smart way to go about things if either of them are.

So what I plan to do at the moment is not panic, not try to assume more than I know, and check around to see if anyone has a clue what’s actually going on. When I know more, I’ll tell you.

That said, a reminder to folks that just because my Tor books and the books of other Macmillan authors are for the moment off Amazon, doesn’t mean you can’t find them elsewhere online: Barnes & Noble and Powell’s both have fine Web sites, for example, and I’m told the Sony eBook store (for one) has my Tor books in stock. And of course if you have a brick and mortar store near you, it might be a fine time to visit them.

Also, my non-Tor books (including The God Engines and my non-fiction work) are still about on Amazon, so there’s that.

No matter how you slice this, however, this is a bit weird. And if this does turn out to be something other than a glitch in Amazon’s system, I’m likely to be more than a little pissed.

Update, 10:12pm: Possibly relevant, possibly not.

Update, 11:33pm: The New York Times says it’s not a glitch, it’s Amazon trying to play hardball with Macmillan. I’m almost certainly going to have more to say about that later, likely not complimentary to Amazon, if it’s true.

Update, 1:55am 1/30: some of my further thoughts on the subject here.

Here’s a cogent criticism of the current GOP:

[N]othing could be worse for the GOP than the illusion of success under present circumstances. Worse than learning nothing from the last two elections, the GOP has learned the wrong things… Not recognizing their past errors, the GOP will make them again and again in the future, and they will attempt to cover these mistakes with temporary, tactical solutions that simply put off the consequences of their terrible decisions until someone else is in office. They will then exploit the situation as much as they possibly can, pinning the blame for their errors on their hapless inheritors and hoping that the latter are so pitiful that they retreat into yet another defensive crouch.

Is the GOP in a worse position than a year ago? On the surface, no, it isn’t. Once we get past the surface, however, the same stagnant, intellectually bankrupt, unimaginative party that brought our country to its current predicament is still there and has not changed in any meaningful way in the last three years.

Where is this particular criticism made? The American Conservative magazine Web site.

Lopsided Cat and Ghlaghghee knew that it would be difficult to talk to Zeus about his addiction to ‘nip. But they never expected Zeus to brazenly pull out the Catnip Sock and “snork up” right in front of them.

And as they say on the street, that’s when the shit got real:

“Seriously, man, he had no right to attack me like that. Yeah, I like my ‘nip. So what? It’s natural, it’s legal, and I’m totally in control of it. And anyway, look who’s snorking the sock now. Yeah, that’s right. Lopsided Cat. Dude’s totally a hypocrite, man.”

Disgusted with the whole sorry incident, Ghlaghghee leaves Zeus and Lopsided Cat to their ‘nip induced haze.

Tragedies like this happen in America every day. Personally, I blame the bastard who gave them the ‘nip in the first place. And when I find him, oh, the things I will do to him.

When we saw it in the dealer’s room at ConFusion, we knew what we were getting Athena for a souvenir. She was quite pleased. As well she should have been. Normally I despise puns with a passion bordering on unholy, but, hey. For Portal I’m willing to make an exception.