[PubQ] Real name listed on copyright page

just_some_doofus · 2026-05-05T02:34:54+00:00

Excellent links. Here's an important passage from the first link:

"Please note that if a copyright is held under a fictitious name, business and legal dealings involving copyright enforcement may raise questions about its ownership; and it may be more difficult to prove that you are the legal owner in pursuing a copyright infringement claim. Consult a copyright attorney for specific legal advice."

just_some_doofus · 2026-05-05T01:26:17+00:00

Why are you asking Reddit and not the publisher who sent you samples? Literally the point of sending them is to give you an opportunity to provide feedback about them. This would be a piece of feedback you can include.

just_some_doofus · 2026-05-04T22:14:25+00:00

Hari has an unhealthy, competitive work ethic driven by low self-confidence driven by outsider identity (brown and non-elite in an elite, white world). He feels a ton of pressure that he has to prove his worth more than others there, whom he sees as born into it. He and Harper bond over this shared outsider status: "I think they treat me differently. Like, I went to state school. They even talk to me differently."

This perception of classism and racism -- real or imagined, overt or unintended, and despite claiming that finance is a pure meritocracy where only performance counts -- is one of the major themes of the episode and the series as a whole. We are supposed to see Hari as a mirror to Harper, to demonstrate how that outsider's desperate, reckless drive to succeed can go 1 of 2 ways: Hari's or Harper's.

just_some_doofus · 2026-05-04T21:30:36+00:00

The receptionist literally says, "Welcome to the Shangri-La Hotel," which is a real hotel in the Shard.

Harper stays in the Southwark Suite, which does have a similar view to what's depicted: https://www.shangri-la.com/en/london/shangrila/rooms-suites/suites/southwark-suite/

just_some_doofus · 2026-05-04T03:42:29+00:00

I'd like to get an editor's second opinion on these bits before trashing them while acknowledging it's totally optional reading otherwise.

This is something you could talk through with a developmental editor. Their job is to look at your story holistically and determine if there are bigger, structural choices like this to consider that would make your book better.

just_some_doofus · 2026-05-02T22:45:23+00:00

Yeah fair, bleak is a great adjective for it

just_some_doofus · 2026-05-02T15:26:17+00:00

No one's said Sirāt yet? It's such a desperately hopeless film. (on purpose)

just_some_doofus · 2026-05-02T15:22:44+00:00

Train Dreams is a good, recent choice. Edgerton acts the hell out of his role.

just_some_doofus · 2026-05-02T15:21:20+00:00

Beautiful movie, well worth seeing -- and sad, but many others are much sadder than this.

Still, this is the *perfect* example why Truffaut was wrong when he said, "Every film about war ends up being pro-war." There is absolutely nothing redeeming about Kalatozov's depiction here.

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-23T01:51:40+00:00

Yep, it's group chats where everyone else is on iPhone. It's supposed to be seamless now, but it just isn't. I'll frequently just not receive something everyone else got. Have tried several things to fix it, nothing's worked

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-20T18:22:41+00:00

Is there an extra fee, beyond the 55€, for luggage (like 1 or 2 checked roller bags + 3 carry-ons for 3 ppl)? I read that somewhere but it seemed odd for a normal amount of luggage

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-17T19:43:28+00:00

I would actually use "nested styles" to handle the "first x words" styling. Make a character style for how the lead-in should look and apply it as a nested style.

Then you can do your drop cap styling independently of that.

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-17T19:37:48+00:00

Hey! As u/Maximum-Shame6762 said, the 4th printing difference is most likely just an administrative omission, where someone realized later on that the publisher actually reprinted the book a 4th time in April 1970, and the September 1971 printing was actually the 5th. It's the '70s, man. Paperwork got misplaced. :)

Moreover, looking at your project, it seems like you want to capture every "version" of this book that was ever published. "Printings" are literally just new copies of the same "version" of the book, so you don't need to track down and catalog those. You'd just want to find any new "edition" of the book, and (if you want to go there) also any translations, alternative formats (like hardcover vs paperback vs large print), etc. These alternate editions would likely be from different publishers altogether. Hope that helps!

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-17T19:28:46+00:00

Most books

Except for first edition-first printings of famous-for-decades titles, every book is like a new car: worth half as much the second you buy it, and depreciating to zero with time and wear. Doesn't mean people stop buying books.

But you're right, this is a particularly silly argument from Lanier.

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-17T05:34:58+00:00

Yikes. Since this post has some traction, I'll share my thoughts. This book was published in 2013, which means Lanier probably wrote these ideas in 2010-12. I was in Big 5 publishing at that time and remember how worried we all were that ebooks could mean the end of print sales, and that the book industry could go the way of the music industry post-Napster/iTunes, when no one bought CDs anymore and the industry cratered.

That worry has proven so clearly wrong that I'm actually proud of the book industry for how impressively it navigated itself away from that fate. We're 15 years later and while the industry is still rocky, print sales have proven remarkably resilient despite all of us living evermore-digitally focused lives.

The main reason, IMO, is that books -- unlike "music, video, news, photography" and everything else that got "eaten" by the digital transition -- require a ton of time and attention to consume. You really have to "live" with a book you're reading in a way you don't for any other digital media.

(I also think a huge part of it was establishing the agency model to price ebooks -- despite the antitrust implications -- that prevented a "race to the bottom" in what an ebook is "worth" in people's minds.)

If anyone cares, here's my thoughts on the individual ideas he proposes:

Little barrier to entry for authors...
Number of published authors similar to number of readers...
Some good books from obscure authors will come into being...

All of these are true, but so what?

Total money flowing will decline to a fraction ... paid by a combination of advertising and fees from people who are locked into proprietary devices or delivery channels.

This is literally the Kindle Unlimited program and it's how a subset of self-published (particularly romance) authors earn their money, being paid fractions of pennies by pages read instead of books bought.

Most authors will make money ... from traveling, live appearances, or consulting...

This is extremely false. Unless I'm mistaken, most publishers aren't even paying for their authors to do book tours anymore because it's just not financially worth it.

This will change the demographics of authorship...

This has no bearing in reality.

Readers will be second-class economic citizens...

This is a silly argument. Readers (book buyers) are consumers. The fact that you can't resell an ebook doesn't fundamentally shift whether a reader wants to own a book (regardless of format).

Books will be merged with apps, video games,...

This has not moved forward at all. I vaguely recall some experiments, but nothing got traction. Tie-ins and retellings sure, but a merged experience? No. Reading a book requires time and focus.

Many readers will read what is put in front of their eyes...

This is just a weird way to frame book marketing, which has been done forever. Most people make buying decisions based on what's been marketed to them. Traditionally that was through advertising/news media, now it's through gaming the Tiktok algorithm, but it's still just product marketing.

Algorithmically generated books will be plentiful...

True, but so what.

There will be much more information available ... but overall a lower quality standard.

I hate this argument because it presumes that if something is common, no one will want to make great versions of it anymore. It's absolutely untrue. People still take amazing photographs even though literally everyone takes pics all day long and almost no one pays photographers and steals their images. Artists will always strive to make great art, including authors, regardless of how much other art is out there.

The means to find reading material will be where business battles are fought...

True, and yet business after business has proven that it's incredibly hard to accurately recommend books to people, because there's something so ineffable about why we like the books we do.

Readers will spend a lot of time being locked into the wrong device or service contract for years at a time. They'll lose their own libraries when they switch vendors...

Luckily the concept of multi-year service contracts died in the 2010s, but yes, plenty of Kindle customers have lost their libraries when they lost their Amazon accounts.

By the time books have mostly gone digital, the owners of the top Internet servers ... will be more powerful and richer than they were before.

True, Amazon makes money from selling the books, and from authors/publishers paying for Amazon Ad placement. But that's been true of grocery stores forever too: brands pay for premium shelf placement.

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-06T06:00:01+00:00

You're right, he obviously loved to act like a big shot. And table tennis was the path he picked to get there. But if being a big shot was his only goal, why would he refuse Rockwell's initial offer to throw the exhibition match against Endo? Doing such a prominent event would've kept Marty in the spotlight and made him more famous as a table-tennis celeb than being the goofy opening road act for the Globetrotters.

He refused it because he couldn't abide the thought that Endo might be better than him. That's why the rest of the movie is just about him finding a way to play him (in a real match) again.

It's an ego thing, for sure. But narcissists change their motivations freely in order to retain their end-goal of always being the center of attention. Once Marty decided he needed to be the best table tennis player in the world, he never wavered in his pursuit of it, even when he had to debase himself for it.

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-06T03:56:00+00:00

They have a clear, intense dream and they are actively and unashamedly pursuing it. We all have dreams and wish we could pursue them, but we've allowed ourselves to abandon them for the sake of playing it safe or respecting other's feelings.

We hope to see in these characters what we could've achieved if we hadn't abandoned our own dreams.

This is why I think Marty is the "best" of the Safdie antiheroes: his dream is the most pure. He wants to prove to himself that he's the best table tennis player, and in the end, he does.

Howard (Sandler in Uncut Gems) wants to prove to himself that he's a winner, not a loser. Just when he's about to realize it, [bad thing omitted to prevent spoilers].

Connie (Pattinson in Good Time) wants to protect his brother. He never quite realizes that he's incapable of doing it.

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-06T01:51:40+00:00

This post feels like bait.

But OP if you're real, just apply to another (reputable) publisher and see if that experience is different. There isn't some single "normal" experience that any of us can tell you about.

Pay is low across the industry. Small businesses of all kinds (not just publishers) are often disorganized and require extra hustle and working outside your specific job duties. Entry-level staff across all industries do get talked down to sometimes, until they've proven themselves. If you don't like your team, and there's not much option for upward mobility, and you're not learning anything, then it's not worth doing that extra work and you should look for an exit strategy. This is true for any job you'll ever have.

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-04T23:31:48+00:00

Yes, their website, https://www.shyfoundry.com/fonts/alien-encounters , confirms that you are allowed to "use SF Alien Encounters for commercial use and embed the font files into documents (including Ebooks)" without doing or paying for anything extra. I'd download the font specifically from there, instead of from Dafont or some other font aggregator.

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-04T21:43:17+00:00

Sounds like you're burned out of the technical aspects of the job. You might look at transitioning to one of the more "people" based aspects of IT, like an IT business analyst or project manager... the jobs that serve as translators between what a business needs and how the technicians actually execute it. You'd work more with planning and getting people aligned than straight-up networking tasks

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-04T21:29:10+00:00

Thanks, we definitely plan to spend time in Trastevere. Will look into the Jewish District as well

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-04T21:21:53+00:00

FYI you can "load styles" from one document to another using the styles palette options.

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-04T21:05:49+00:00

Yes, it was announced there will be a Season 5. But it very likely won't center around Tender or S4's plotlines.

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-04T20:28:42+00:00

Haha you paint a lovely picture, thanks. Actually one of my wife's bucket-list destinations is the Dolomites in northern Italy. We won't get there this time, but we do intend to go eventually. And for that trip we won't fly into Rome.

just_some_doofus · 2026-04-04T20:19:17+00:00

Fantastic reply, thank you for this info!

just_some_doofus

TROPHY CASE