Publishing Crooks

OK, this will be brief, but this is an issue that really burns me up.

I got an email in my Inbox this morning from Wiley-Blackwell, publishers of all sorts of books. I'm on some mailing list they have and get these periodically -- it's basically an ad for news books. I don't mind it, because I love any and all forms of books.

Including eBooks.

Typically, the actual content of these ads don't interest me enough to click through, but this one caught my eye. So I clicked. I salivated over the Description. I drooled over the Table of Contents.

I frowned at the price tag. And then I saw this:

Other Available Formats: Adobe
E-Book

I cheered! I clicked! I had a small myocardial infarction at the price of the E-Book -- which was the same as the fucking hard copy!!!

What. The. Hell.

Seriously?? You're going to charge me $45 for a fucking computer file?? GET WITH THE PROGRAM, PEOPLE!!!

It costs you almost nothing to produce a PDF file. Yes, OK -- you have to recover the cost of setting it up, etc., but once it's set up you don't have to pay for paper, ink, and printing machines to print it. You don't have to pay to ship it to a retailer. You don't even have to pay to ship it to me directly! At least give me a friggin' discount!!!

Arrgh! It's no wonder the major players in the publishing industry are spiraling the drain -- with attitudes like this, they deserve to.

There. I have spoken.

Breathing Deep

I'm not even sure I can write a proper blog post anymore. It has been so long -- and I am now so used to teensy missives such as will fit into my Facebook status without generating a nastygram -- that I'm not sure I'm actually capable of anything else. So we shall just have to see how long this lasts...

Anyway, Anatomy & Physiology is over. I passed. More importantly, I learned a hell of a lot and feel a lot more confident in my ability to NOT introduce mistakes when I edit medical documents (a huge fear). So that is good.

However, I have decided NEVER to take another class during the fall. With NaNo and then the holidays, it's just too nuts. I'm sure I'll have to eat that 'never', if I ever do get into grad school, but for now, when I'm just putzing around doing whatever the hell I want -- Fall is For Fun. Spring is for classes.

Except for this spring. Because I need a fucking break after that hellacious fall.... heh...

I mean, I really SHOULD take Molecular Bio to get it out of the way, but I think I'll wait and take it next year. Most of it won't be new to me anyway, because most of it is stuff I've (slowly and painfully) taught myself over the last 6 years. Besides, me and Eldest Daughter need some serious dental work, so I need the freelance income and I can't freelance, if I'm trying to get good grades. And once the dental work is taken care of, there's that big, expensive, fucking car we just bought. *dies at recollection of pricetag* (It was worth it though. I love that car already.)

Anyway, my focus at the moment is to breathe deep, get through the rest of the week, get to Florida and breathe deep some more (preferably whilst laying in the sun beside a pool or beach...), survive the Night of the Man in Red, eat waaay too much, and see Avatar. Somewhat in that order. :)

(Wow! That's, like, four whole paragraphs!)