Oh, I’ve been lazy lately. The sun’s put its first appearances of the year in, which means I’ve been doing a bit of garden stuff and generally finding excuses to be outdoors. Also, I’m trying to fugre out how to fill in a 1042-S and where to send it (answer on a postcard please?).

Publishing: HarperCollins wants to limit the number of times an ebook can be borrowed from the library. The limit of 26 loans is apparently based on the life of a print book. They’ve obviously not been to the libraries I’ve been too if they think a print book can only survive 26 reads. What do you think sellotape’s for? One theory about HC’s move is hey’re testing reception for the idea of placing a limit on the number of times purchasers can read ebooks, though it’s just speculation at this point.

HarperCollins are part of the Agency Six (it was five, but Random House joined the ranks earlier this year, making this a collaboration between all the major publishing conglomorations), who are setting ebook prices and refuing to allow retailers to offer discounts. There’s been a lot of discussion recently about how ebooks ought to be priced; a lot of publishing blogs are nattering away about a 99c price point. There’s some interesting discussion from KVTaylor, Courtney Milan and over at Dear Author. I’m with Katy here: I think if I saw a novel priced for 99c (which is about 70p in the UK, or a large bar of chocolate) I’d assume it wasn’t very good, but if I saw a novel discounted to 99c I’d be tempted. As Courtney points out, there’s a massive supply of free material on the internet already, a lot of which is very good, but people still pay for ebooks (which she credits to IP laws).

Apple’s insistance that they get a cut of in-app purchases and the fact they only signed onto the agency agreement for a year could shake things up a bit, but, frankly, I think the big six are too committed now. If they find this means no one’s willing to sell their ebooks, well, you can’t help but wonder if that’s not what they wanted all along.

Interest-Piquing: Which sexy Wonder Woman costume is a hallowe’en costume and which is the promo pic for the new TV series? Oh god. It’s so… shiny. Give me denim and red boots, and I’d be fine with it – in fact, I’m quite glad to see she’s not in star spangled panties, though I’d have liked to throw the high heels out too – but there’s a reason most live-action superhero stuff skips the lycra.

Procrastination: Start here. When you’re all caught up, check out the slenderman mythos (sorry, it’s a tvtropes link) and try Everyman HYBRID/CANYOUSEETHEWORDS. You can see where a lot of my time when these past few weeks…