Fuck Writers, Fuck the Publishing World - Apple, Amazon & The Trib

OK, you're getting YOUR news of the day from where I did. The INTERNET.

Why buy a newspaper or magazine when you can get your information FREEEEEEEEEEE.

And that news is, of course, that the publishing industry is fucked and dying like some female tourist in Pakistan.

Bookstores...I won't even bother with a screen cap on the Barnes & Noble story...how those assholes put everything they had into the NOOK, only to still be killed by Amazon's Kindle.

They saw that bookstores were dying so they joined the eBook ghouls. And lost. Now they aren't sure what to do. Most likely they will continue to shrink the amount of books they sell in the stores, and expand the coffee bar and Yuppie toy department. And cluck their tongues over how sad it is that even fewer writers, editors and publishers can make a living anymore.

Ebooks? Apple lost a decision in court. They're fighting it. They say all they were doing was trying to prevent big bad Amazon Kindle from being the total Hitler of the publishing world. They only wanted publishers and authors to get a little bit more money than Amazon was offering. Nobody ever dragged Amazon into court for deciding ALL ebooks would be $9.99. But they've gone after Apple. A sure sign that Amazon still IS the Hitler of eBooks. And of presiding over Internet mail order sales in general.

OK, the book world is fucked. Just in case there was any doubt, the newspaper world is, too.

Ironically, at one time I reviewed books for the Chicago Tribune, among others, and that hasn't happened in a long time. Because very little space is now given to book reviews. Very few publishers can afford ads in newspapers. And...

Oh, what a surprise. The Tribune Company, which like Rupert Murdoch and other weasels, always owned both newspapers and television/radio stations, is splitting up their divisions. They are concentrating on their more lucrative TV stations, and will probably hold their nose while their newspaper division rots and gets tossed into the bankruptcy trash. "Oh, well, too bad, we decided to suspend all the newspapers. Oh well, it's good for the environment and saves trees, heh heh. We have a skeleton crew that will keep the newspaper websites going, but mostly we won't have REAL news, just shit about Kardashian, Rihanna, and stupid and gross stories that the London Daily Mail would run. That's what people want." Right. Is it that people want it, or that's the easiest thing to give them, like it's easier to slap a fast food burger on a bun rather than prepare something wholesome and nutritious?

We're moving more and more toward illiteracy...toward Tweets that R 4 azzholes...toward anime and more 3D cartoon movies...toward more graphic novels (with less text) and more stupid photo-filled reports on what idiot bitch starlets are wearing and how horribly the lowlifes of the world can kill and maim innocent people. How many people can name an AUTHOR anymore? "Tell me the name of a news columnist you read. NO?" When was the last time a writer was invited onto a chat show? Jeez, when was the last time a novelist made any kind of buzz as a promising new talent...and it didn't involve mommy porn? My hair is turning 50 shades of gray....