Category Archives: Economics

State Sponsored Piracy

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Cheryl

Yesterday there was a bit of a dust up in UK social media on the subject of book piracy. As you doubtless know, all Wizard’s Tower books are DRM-free, and are available for sale all over the world. Aside from … Continue reading →

Posted in Ebooks, Economics | Comments Off

It’s Not Amazon, It’s You

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Cheryl

Well, not all of you, obviously. Some of you are very clued up on ebook issues. But the various Amazon fails that have happened over the past few weeks have brought home to me how many people who profess to … Continue reading →

Posted in Ebooks, Economics, Wizard's Tower | 20 Comments

E-Book Settlement – Amazon Wins Again

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Cheryl

If anyone was in any doubt that the e-book pricing anti-trust lawsuit was a case of capture of the legal system by Amazon, here’s the proof. Normally when there’s a class action lawsuit, the courts collect the money and parcel … Continue reading →

Posted in Ebooks, Economics, Publishing | 7 Comments

Off The Rails

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Cheryl

I’m doing this post mainly for the benefit of Kevin, who is very interested in rail policy, but today’s fiasco does have relevance to my day job as well. Lets start with a brief recap. Many years ago the previous … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Affairs, Economics | 6 Comments

Derivatives: More Maths Won’t Save Us

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Cheryl

Today’s Observer (the Sunday Guardian) has an interesting article about derivatives valuation by Professor Ian Stewart. You’ll probably know Stewart from books he has written with Jack Cohen and Terry Pratchett, and you may remember that for a couple of … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | 2 Comments

Local Currency

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Cheryl

So today I discovered that Bristol has its own currency, the Bristol Pound. What!!?? Yes, really, and it is all legal. Of course the city isn’t actually printing money. That would cause people in Westminster to send the army in. … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | 1 Comment

Online Price Checks Hit High Street

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Cheryl

There has been a certain amount of concern in the book business of late about a new initiative from Amazon. What they are doing is encouraging consumers to report the prices that are being offered by bricks and mortar bookstores … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Internet, Wizard's Tower | 3 Comments

Beatts on Bookstores

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Cheryl

This morning over breakfast I listened to the latest episode of Alisa Krasnostein and Jonathan Strahan’s podcast, Live and Sassy. This featured an interview with the owner of one of my favorite bookstores: Alan Beatts of Borderlands Books in San … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Economics, Internet, Wizard's Tower | 1 Comment

Bookstore Arithmetic

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Cheryl

Yesterday I saw someone on Twitter encouraging his friends to buy Tim Maughan’s book, Paintwork, from Amazon. Now of course people are free to buy from whoever they please, but if you want to help British writers such as Tim … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Wizard's Tower | 1 Comment

Lawyers + Ebooks = Trouble

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Cheryl

Today’s news brought word of a troubling development in the USA. Hagens Berman, a “consumer rights firm”, has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple and several major publishers over the “agency model” system of ebook pricing. They allege that … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Publishing | 4 Comments

Amazon and The Book Depository

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Cheryl

Yesterday’s Twitter updates brought the depressing news that Amazon is to buy up my second favorite online bookstore (the first being my own, naturally), The Book Depository. Reaction to this in my corner of the blogosphere has been pretty much … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Affairs, Economics, Internet | 6 Comments

Laws Are Just the Start

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Cheryl

Via the excellent Lauren Beukes on Twitter I discovered this presentation, produced for The Economist, which looks at the economic opportunities for women in 113 countries around the world. By far the most startling thing about it is the discovery … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Feminism | 1 Comment

People and Money

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Cheryl

Running Wizard’s Tower is proving interesting and educational in a number of ways. Unsurprisingly, I have discovered that I am not a very good salesperson. Making stuff is no problem. Persuading people to part with money is quite another. Some … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Salon Futura, Wizard's Tower | 11 Comments

What’s In Store – The Magazines

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Cheryl

Aside from Dark Spires, the only things I have in store at the moment are copies of Clarkesworld and Salon Futura. I don’t expect this state of affairs to last. I’m actively talking to small presses and individual authors about … Continue reading →

Posted in Clarkesworld, Ebooks, Economics, Salon Futura | Comments Off

What’s In Store? – Dark Spires

Posted on November 16, 2010 by Cheryl

Now that I have this smart new online store, I should talk a bit about what we have for sale. We have a whole lot of issues of Salon Futura and Clarkesworld — I’ll talk more about them tomorrow. I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Economics, Publishing, Wizard's Tower | 5 Comments

The Coming Race

Posted on October 20, 2010 by Cheryl

If you need any further proof that we now live in The Future, consider this: The Economist is blogging about the effect of robots on labour markets. Of course, like any good pundit, they hedge their case: Of course, full … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Science Fiction | 2 Comments

Buying and Borrowing

Posted on October 4, 2010 by Cheryl

Paul Cornell was asking on Twitter this morning why people hate DRM so much. I can see both sides (I do own a publishing company now, after all), but from a reading point of view my complaint has always been … Continue reading →

Posted in Ebooks, Economics | Comments Off

Wave Power

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Cheryl

Every so often my day job turns up stories full of sfnal awesomeness. Take, for example, this press release from the University of Arizona about generating electricity from waves — quantum waves. Bergfield designed the benzene ring circuit in such … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Science | 1 Comment

Statistical Illiteracy

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Cheryl

In yesterday’s Guardian Cory Doctorow railed against the inability of the general public to understand statistics. His targets were people who spend a fortune on lotteries, parents who get hysterical about media-driven panics and ignore the fact that far more … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | 6 Comments

More On Identity Economics

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Cheryl

A couple of weeks ago I pointed you at an article in The Economist on the subject of Identity Economics. It seemed to me to be a very promising way of approaching economic and social issues, though the implications of … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Gender | 2 Comments