Oh, I love this argument. While we're at it, charging money is against the spirit of ST as well! Everything should be free!
I don't mind ebook royalties, but, as a confirmed Luddite, I still prefer physical books myself. Plus, it's hard to display an ebook on the brag shelf in my office. Apparently, "Miasma" is getting a hard copy edition this month -- in German. Going have to get my hands on one of those.
You wanna take the metaphor in that direction, DVD releases are the physical reprint in this equation - the content becomes available outside of the lock of the initial format. The fact that we still have to pay for the content at all is just a side effect of living in a capitalist society, of course.
When I started reading eBooks, I was using a laptop. So even with a computer or laptop, eBooks can be read. Do you use Wordstar or WordPerfect for DOS?
Busted. I was one of the last authors who kept insisting on using an old version of WordPerfect long after the publishing industry adopted Word as the standard. My editors finally read me the riot act and told me I had to switch to Word--or else. As far I know, the late Harry Harrison stuck with WordStar until the end. Used to drive Tor's production department nuts. And I know of at least one bestselling author who still delivers their books on old-fashioned, 8-inch floppy disks. The publisher has to keep one dedicated old PC around just to process them. Never underestimate how superstitious or set in their ways authors can be. I swear to God, I cannot plot a book without yellow legal pads, index cards, and freshly-sharpened pencils. My writing brain just won't engage without them.
You can't give that up for just an occasional 50-100 page novella? Yeah, but there's nothing preventing anyone that wants them from buying them. It's not like going around blocking certain people from getting them, it's simply the anti-ebook people's choice not to read them. If anything they're less "exclusive" since they are both cheaper and easy to get a hold of. How so? I really don't understand this.
I'm by no means an e-Book snob. They're great for research/searching/etc. But, I spend many hours of Every. Single. Day. looking at a computer screen for work. For my leisure reading, I prefer to unplug and read a physical book. It's really just that simple. My royalty statements also tell me I'm a long way from being alone in this regard.
That would have gotten precisely nowhere with me. I would cast Linotype and Ludlow slugs, and print the damn thing myself on a Heidelberg Windmill before I would tolerate being ordered to use Word (or any other Microschlong product more recent than, say, the QBX development system for DOS). Which is to say that I use WP 5.1+ for DOS, and Xerox Ventura Publisher 3.0, DOS/GEM Edition for any serious project involving digital typesetting. And yes, as a matter of fact, I do know how to use a Linotype, and a Ludlow, and how to set foundry type, and how to run a number of different presses, including the aforementioned Windmill. And as a docent at the International Printing Museum, I do the first two with some regularity.
I can't claim I understood most of that, but I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to print movie novelizations and media tie-in novels yourself. . Plus, in my editors' defense, functions like Track Changes weren't really compatible with my old WordPerfect, and, for better or for worse, the days of copyediting manuscripts with red pencil and Post-Its are no more. (I think the DARK KNIGHT RISES novelization, back in 2012, was the first book I wrote using Word, long after most authors had already made the switch.)
Well, the ST stuff I've written probably doesn't even qualify as a fanzine. And I am happy to provide RTF or PDF. Or plain text. As it happens, for several years, I've been doing the typesetting, printing, and circulation (and was acting editor as well, for a time) on a newsletter. And my biggest pet peeve is when I'm sent material in M$ Word format, because it's such a royal pain in the butt to convert to anything else!
George RR Martin still uses Wordstar 4.0 for DOS.Me, I don't care much for Word. I rather liked WordPerfect for Windows. It's a shame that Word became the standard. I fully understand how it's easy to become set in your ways. I am like that with some things. I can get annoyed when I go to find something and it's been moved. Besides, it's what works for you and that's OK except for being forced to use Word. That's because most people don't know how to properly use Word. To properly use Word, you need to use styles, Not the default styles, but make your own so you don't have extra crud in the styles. It may take some getting used to to use styles, but that makes Word > eBook much easier.
And eInk screen is very different to an LCD screen. One thing I find amusing is when people say they don't like to read on a phone/tablet/reader yet watch TV on an LCD screen. Personally, I like to read on my Kobo Aura H2O (eInk Reader).
Why is that amusing? There is a legitimate difference between reading and watching TV. I assume you don't sit on a couch ten feet away from your reader when you read a book.
And if you can show me where I said I "don't like" to read on any of those devices, or where I mentioned watching TV, you might have a point. I said I have a preference. It's different than yours. End of story. You do you, and quit worrying so much about what other people do.