Et cetera

I misspoke, yesterday, when I noted the article in which Richard Grayson had “discovered” POD; fact was, Grayson has been using it for years. By people behind the times, though, I don’t mean a guy like Grayson, who’s apparently been writing and publishing for years; I mean the publishing industry in general, which has, pretty much across the board, failed to fully capitalize on either POD or digital technology. NetFlix has queues and streaming video; iTunes has music and video downloads, as well as rentals of the latter; and Amazon has the trifecta–UnBox for video, DRM-free mp3 downloads, and now the Kindle.

Meanwhile, many traditional, commercial, conglomerate, ginormous publishing companies continue to fail to meet the needs of either their readers or their writers. They continue to demonstrate their utter lack of any ability to successfully market books online (every article I read says “We don’t really know how to do it. We just got lucky.”).

Pretty soon, Tor.com is going to launch a new science fiction site, but where are the other publishers?

On the shelves, for the most part. And often, that’s where they’ll remain.

Anyway, given my misspeaking yesterday, I had wanted to note that article was not the first time I’d encountered Richard Grayson’s name (am I misremembering that Robin’s secret identity is Dick Grayson? That’s pretty rad); back in November, the PODler reviewed And to Think That He Kissed Me on Lorimer Street very positively:

a master satirist and a keen observer of the American scene from his own and unique viewpoint. Grayson writes in a deceptively simple style that is, nevertheless, hard to imitate. Using this kind of autobiographical method, bordering on a confessional, Grayson looks through shifting viewpoints (gay and straight; white and black; American and immigrant; young and old) at the people, times, and palaces of a fictional Brooklyn.

Here’s And to Think That He Kissed Me over at Lulu (where more is available, as well).