E-book | Karavansara

This is not the post I was planning.
But something happened, and while my common sense tells me it would be wiser to shut the hell up and keep going my way…
Ah, you know I can’t, right?
So, let’s call this a pork-chop express, shall we?

What happened?
Here in my sector of the world wide web, twice, in the past seven days, two digital publishers reacted in a highly counter-productive way – in my opinion, of course – to what amounted to simple instances of people (a customer in one case, a writer in another) expressing their legitimate concerns online.

Mind you – I’m not siding with one or another.
I don’t care if the opinions vented by those guys were legit or preposterous.
This post is not an attack on somebody or a defense of someone else.
I’m just trying to put down what I think failed here.
And I am convinced that failing is not bad in itself – it’s bad only if, failing, we do not learn from failure.

The idea is – if you work through the web (say, as a publisher of digital books), you cannot blame the web if things do not go the way you planned it.
It would be like cursing the hammer because you hit your thumb.

I know it smarts.
I know we all try to project an aura of infallibility, and of high professionalism.
It’s the way to go.
But then, we cannot allow ourselves to spin out of shape when our infallibility and professionalism are questioned.
Because that way, we give definitive proof of our lack in both fields.

And I know it’s hard going, publishing books – digital or otherwise – in the European country with the lowest number of books bought per capita, but reacting with a siege mentality, in which anything but the highest praise is to be interpreted as an attack and a potential damage to sales, is suicidal.

The people out there – customers, writers, bloggers, facebook punters, innocent bystanders – are not your subjects.
They are not there to do your bidding.
And when they express ideas or opinions that you do not like, they are not rioting.
So there’s no need to read them the riot act.
It’s called communication – and by reacting with rants, menaces or general aggression, you fail at communication.
And that’s not good, because writing (or publishing, or selling goods) is communicating.

In these cases, the good old hypocrite way is probably the best course – you thank your counterpart for pointing out the problem, promise you’ll get the guys (it’s always “the guys”, btw – never make it personal) to fix it, and then, in the quiet of your offline world, you curse them for a fool, scream and thrash a bit to release your pent-up anger, and then forget about the whole thing.
Or maybe, you look into the thing – because maybe the problem that was pointed out to you really is a problem, and fixing it might make your work easier and your counterparts happier.

Just being aggressive, in these cases, is counterproductive – you loose customers if you publicly thrash a customer.

And huge, sarcasm-loaded scattershot rants are certainly a great way to get an endorphine rush and feel cool and badass, and probably will gather a few accolades from the usual bootlickers, but in the long run, they feel like the time Xerxes had the sea flogged for disobeying his orders.

My plans for the weekend (including the updating of this blog) went belly up when Pro Se Press released, early this week, the third volume in Barry Reese‘s The Adventures of Lazarus Gray series.
As soon as I was aware of the book’s availability, I grabbed myself a copy (ebooks are just great – they are cheap and there’s no waiting for the postman!) and shelved every other project for a while.
The fun bit being, after all I can file the hours spent reading this baby as “research” (but more on that later).

For the uninitiated, Lazarus Gray is the central character in Barry Reese’s series of pulp stories set in Sovereign City in the 1930s, and featuring crime-busting, evil-thwarting team, Assistance Unlimited.
An obvious, heartfelt homage to such Lester Dent classics as Doc Savage and The Avenger, Lazarus Gray is a man of mystery and action – his past gone, he swears to bring justice to the city, and assistance to anyone in need.
And so he does.

The Lazarus Gray stories feature all the classic pulp elements – the stalwart, omnicompetent hero, his varied team of quirky assistants, a choice of villains, thrilling locations, superscience, ancient mysteries, the supernatural…
In a proper new pulp twist, Mr Reese approaches his materials with a modern sensibility, sidestepping the trap of political correctedness by providing us with a fresh, modern, intelligent take on “delicate” issues such as gender, race, politics.
This is pulp like in the days of old, but without the outdated and unpleasent biases of our grandfathers.

The third book picks up where the earlier entry in the series (Die Glocke) left off, and shows us that the universe in which the characters move is still evolving – there’s big changes in the air, there’s lots of stuff happening, old enemies are back in the game, new enemies are in, too.
The author’s willingness to let his characters grow, change and mutate is another element of fun and interest in the series. There is a dynamic quality, in Sovereign City and its denizens, that keeps the reader’s attention up.

This is new pulp as it’s meant to be, and to me, the Lazarus Gray stories are an almost perfect template of how it’s done – they are complex, tightly-plotted, hard-hitting, fun.
There’s a lot to learn, here, for someone trying to crack the genre.
That’s why I file ’em not as entertainment, but as research.

The ebook edition of the third volume in the series – which goes by the title of Eidolon, but let’s not spoil the fun by revealing more – also includes a short, gorgeous comic and a selection of black and white illustrations.
Not bad, for something like 3 euros.

Defects?
There’s too little of it – the Lazarus Gray stories are a fast, fun read, and the new book’s over way too soon.

All in all, a highly entertaining, intelligent, stimulating read.
The whole series is highly recommended.