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The Micky and Yoda club? WTF happened to Star Wars!

As everyone might have heard by now that Star Wars episode 7 is going to be made, finally! This good news may come as a disappointment since it is Disney that has bought Lucas Arts and is pushing forward with more Star Wars movies. GREAT! But! It’s Disney of all companies! Disney has a nasty history with screwing things up with massive overdoses of political correctness. Also the over powering belief everything must be family oriented and child friendly. To make an attempt at being fair here I will point out that Disney does have a few winners in its history of movie making Tron being one but sadly to show their ineptitude took them over two decades to give us an overdue sequel. Other side of this coin would be too much Star Wars; and as a geek I know how strange that sounds but it can happen. If Disney drops too many Star Wars bombs then we will get what we pretty much have now. Very little in the way of quality Star Wars which is ‘Knights of the Old Republic’, and we may even lose that.

A lot can go wrong here but I will admit there is an opportunity for things to go very right. If people being given this massive undertaking of keeping Star Wars alive and ongoing move forward smartly and keep true to the essence of the Star Wars Universe then we might very well be heading into the a new golden age of Star Wars. I will point out the one major thing that shows promise to me. (Star Wars Ep 7, A New Plot) It has been confirmed to some small extent that the next trilogy will be its own story line. This is something I had always pointed out on S/W forums across the interwebs for years. That is if there is going to be an episode 7-9 and more then it needed to be a new story line. A new set of players that may have some distant link to the original group Han, Leia, and Luke, and this is the beauty of S/W. It is set in a Universe that has had galactic governance for about twenty-five thousand years. You can slide anywhere on that time line, and if they are smart they will leap a few thousand years into the future. Introducing us to a whole new group of rebels and Jedi; fighting against some sith trying to take over. This has the best and most flexible future given they do not have to worry about bumping into any of the original story if they go backwards into the past.

I’m already proven right to some extent. If you look at Star Wars’ success in recent past you see it is very little to do with the Clone Wars, or episode 1-3 which were just train wrecks. The TV series and movies didn’t go over as well as they should have. Star Wars is big enough of a brand to have done better at the box office to do well even if it is lacking but it didn’t beat Titanic which it should have. What has been successful is ‘The Knights of the Old Republic’ and ‘Force Unleashed’, proving the old story of Luke and Anakin, and Han and Leia needs to be put to bed for now. We have the movies on DVD digitally remastered and if we are feeling a little masochistic we can watch Ep’ 1-3 before we put in Ep’ 4 ‘A New Hope ‘. I say it is time to move on and will put some faith in Gorge Lucas’ decision to sell to Disney in that it may lead to greater things. Maybe this has been the issue all along that Gorge is burned out with movie making and should have retired years ago, say around 1999, but better late than way too damn late.

At the end of this I will say I am more heartened by that little scrap of news about the plot, hopefully we can see a fresh Star Wars movie come 2015 that is every bit as good as Ep’ 4 was, but let us not hold our breaths chances are we will be disappointed as always. Something Star Wars fans have learned to live with.

E-books v. Books

After doing some research on the subject of the pros and cons on E-books I decided to publish my first book via lulu. Now I understand the worry of most authors about E-publishing especially on a site like lulu. Your book becomes a pin in a stack of a millions of pins. Whereas in a book store your book if lucky enough to be on the shelf; it would be a book among a few hundred in its given genre at worst. But! We have this thing called social media these days and more powerful now than you grandfather’s internet. From facebook to twitter the author has means of getting themselves out there like never before. Also if you are already a power user you already have the tools and knowledge to gain followers quick on a new account if you wish not to use any current accounts. The big help comes in attracting the following and there are secrets and tips that can go a long way in facilitating this. It won’t be over night but in a few short months you can have a few hundred if not a few thousand followers.

I won’t get into getting followers and such as it is since I am still learning the process as well. I do plan however, to share such knowledge here. If you are like me a hobbyist author who has been threatening the world about someday publishing your work. You probably found yourself asking the very real question paper-or-digital, or both? What type of future does either have? Things in the digital world change so quickly can the format that you publish in today be completely forgotten about tomorrow? I’m not going to try and answer all of these questions but instead put out here what I think needs to happen in the industry.

First thing we have to remember is the customer drives prices. If the customer with a little work can find something for free they will, but at the same time most customers will happily spend the coin to get something without the headache. No e-book is safe from copying. We can lock them down enough to keep them from being manipulated, but we cannot prevent someone paying the money to get your e-book and then posting it on Pirate bay or something. E-readers are overpriced for most people, even the ones that are under a hundred U.S. dollars. More money than it is worth for the average person who can still get that paperback from $7-5 dollars. No batteries, no worries if dropped, and rather rugged. E-readers are hardly any of this, and they have too many features. The ability to go online, watch a movie, or maybe sometime get around to reading one of those 30 books you just down loaded. Chances are in-less you are a very discipline person who is an avid reader you won’t hardly ever touch those e-book files in less god-forbid there’s no Wi-Fi! I have an e-book reader on my net-book but I only use it as a proof reading tool, it helps me find the many mistakes my brain refuses to see when looking over my work in word. Other than that I never read anything on my computer aside from what’s on a given webpage. I wouldn't give my kid a Nook that had internet with the ability to watch movies and all that great stuff. He/she would never read anything longer than a movie title. Tablets and E-readers need to be two very different things and should have very little in common. I’m also certain if a company really wanted to they could build an e-reader that was in the $40-50 range that would have only a few titles saved inside it with no option to add more. You would have to buy another one with the titles you wanted safely locked inside it.

So what conclusions can we draw from the above questions, problems, and issues surrounding them. For authors as well as readers it is personal needs, a Nook or Kindle fire for about $200 can make a cheap in-between instead of a tablet HC that can run few more dollars.  It comes down to price write now; we must look at volume over anything if we choose the e-publish option. Because if I am a Nook customer who is looking for that diamond-in-the-rough e-book on lulu I am not going to pay a penny over $4 even if I can afford more. Only big name authors with long awaited titles can ask for more because if it’s out for say $30 in hard cover, No paperback yet, but I can get it for $9 from an online e-book store than I’m going with the cheaper option. Convenience the reader is our only option if we choose e-publish, price it cheap and constantly and shamelessly promote your work. I strongly suggest fellow first timers as well as pros to look at the e-publish option, but know full well it isn't the price you need to worry about in-less you priced it too high; but it can never be too low.

I have noticed many authors will let it go for free for a few weeks/months to garner interest. What risk is in down loading a free book that can go to your trash can if you hate it? I think pricing is the sword the publishing industry will die upon if they do not realize it has to make more readers and not gouging existing ones. Here is a chance for the overall literary industry to have an electronic renaissance. There is nothing more therapeutic than slowing down life long enough to read a book.  The market is Not finite there is not a set amount of readers out there and therefore profit can be just as great or even greater. With one click of a mouse button your e-book is global whereas you print copy isn't  I’m working out the pricing system as we speak with my own work. I purposely priced it a little higher than I thought it would sale at just to make sure I didn't undercut myself, and I will be slashing the price to get the book selling. I suggest everyone play around with this if they are just starting out, a seasoned author will know via experience. So we must experience this industry for ourselves and listen to their advice.  

There is an overall conclusion in here somewhere but I will leave it to you to draw it. I believe strongly right now since the industry is in such flux we have to figure it out for ourselves what the best move is for us as authors.