tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.comments2023-07-02T06:11:56.794-05:00Survival of the BookBrianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09277741178537732462noreply@blogger.comBlogger144125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-41729567215291608782012-03-30T15:45:21.077-05:002012-03-30T15:45:21.077-05:00Folks, it seems to me that there are at least two ...Folks, it seems to me that there are at least two ways to look at online buying -- with the local bookstore central. Personally, I buy many used books, seldom brand new books, for background reading on my history of woodworking website. I use bookfinder.com, exclusively, which is a database of 50 million titles, composed of the holdings of local bookstores, worldwide. In my mind, this is a strong sign of a shift from the off the street buyer to the online buyer, and unless I am crazy, means the survival of the local bookstore. Moreover, because this market is open to a worldwide audience, suddenly the secondhand book -- little in demand by the off-the-street buyer -- becomes more valuable, because of the wider range of buyers. Am I right?Raymond McInnishttp://woodworkinghistory.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-3135980001546266722011-08-03T12:48:46.212-05:002011-08-03T12:48:46.212-05:00It's incorrect that nobody wants to buy a bad ...It's incorrect that nobody wants to buy a bad product; people buy cigarettes on a daily basis and that's one hell of a bad product.Ondrej from James Patterson Book Listhttp://mostpopularbooks.org/book-information/james-patterson-book-list/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-42565582735882489522011-05-17T15:53:55.661-05:002011-05-17T15:53:55.661-05:00I don't agree with the comparison to academic ...I don't agree with the comparison to academic job candidates "working through rejection." The changing university churns out more Ph.D.'s each year than they open jobs. The deck is stacked. There's economics involved.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-83566591796761672412011-05-13T13:57:16.075-05:002011-05-13T13:57:16.075-05:00But who says editors are afraid of the depressing?...But who says editors are afraid of the depressing? Flavorwire offers "10 Devastatingly Sad Books" here: http://flavorwire.com/177382/required-reading-10-devastatingly-sad-books Enjoy - or not.Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09277741178537732462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-44211950718003517212011-05-03T08:13:51.525-05:002011-05-03T08:13:51.525-05:00Physically, books are -- in their own right -- wor...Physically, books are -- in their own right -- works of art, something that never will be equaled by their digitized cousins. Moreover, reading an actual book has several advantages over its digitized cousin, just as reading a digitized book has its advantages over its paper cousin. In other words, books -- paper and digital -- will learn to live together. For the physical book, "publication on demand" will become a larger issue, whether new books or reprints of old books.<br /><br />As truisms, maybe my comments are not very profound, but -- on the other hand -- any attempt toward blocking the inevitable onslaught of digital publishing -- including the parodying of book cart choreography -- smacks too much of a "quixotic" presumptuousness.<br /><br />Incidentally, in today's post, check the font in the first inset quote, because it looks different than the other two below, and there is a typo in one of the lower paragraphs.Raymond McInnishttp://www.woodworkinghistory.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-29322885480209921642011-04-18T21:56:09.553-05:002011-04-18T21:56:09.553-05:00I'm not convinced people won't consistentl...I'm not convinced people won't consistently replace their e-readers every 2 - 3 years, just as they do laptops now. And by "they," admittedly, I actually mean "we."Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09277741178537732462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-28023827961211131992011-04-14T16:07:56.711-05:002011-04-14T16:07:56.711-05:00As for the environmental effects of eReaders, ever...As for the environmental effects of eReaders, every study shows completely different numbers. I've heard everything between 20 to 50. I've certainly used my Sony Reader enough to justify purchasing it (cost-wise, most definitely - environmentally speaking, possibly). Not every study takes into account the carbon emissions of <i>transporting</i> and delivering books, whether to a bookstore or home after an internet purchase. I take those numbers with a grain of salt, but I do find them to be relevant nonetheless. One day we will find a balance. Hopefully it will be soon.<br /><br />It seems unfair to assume, furthermore, that readers will actually replace their eReaders every two years. Until now, the market has been mostly ruled by techies, who would have replaced their eReaders regardless (as they would probably like to test the newer models). I suspect the stats for buying new eReaders will drop significantly over the next few years, particularly as use of them grows...Meytal Radzinskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15805413335735169073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-22179721199076573452011-04-12T17:14:07.324-05:002011-04-12T17:14:07.324-05:00Welcome to capitalism and free market economy. I h...Welcome to capitalism and free market economy. I hate it, too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-73774292288125247962011-04-12T13:52:36.265-05:002011-04-12T13:52:36.265-05:00I should continue the Genoways quote to really mak...I should continue the Genoways quote to really make the point, as he explains, "the real problems come in lifespan. At present, the average e-reader is used less than two years before it is replaced. That means that the nearly ten million e-readers expected to be in use by next year would have to supplant the sales of 250 million new books—not used or rare editions, 250 million new books—each year just to come out footprint-neutral."Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09277741178537732462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-39004072918124822642011-02-23T15:23:07.686-05:002011-02-23T15:23:07.686-05:00This type of thing happened in my bookstore one da...This type of thing happened in my bookstore one day except they were trying to hide the fact that they were photographing the cover of the book so they could look it up online later. I walked over to them and said: "Please don't do that. It's rude." They were completely caught off guard and quietly went on their way.Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09149750190427749578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-14129214835091014692011-02-10T16:04:52.123-05:002011-02-10T16:04:52.123-05:00D'oh! I mean, I know it was kind of... tragico...D'oh! I mean, I know it was kind of... tragicomic, but I don't want to spread sadness across the land. We don't want to be downers at SotB, I swear!Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09277741178537732462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-59335257507019132642011-02-10T16:03:33.033-05:002011-02-10T16:03:33.033-05:00That... just kind of made me sad.That... just kind of made me sad.Meytal Radzinskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15805413335735169073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-88623712385690917582011-01-14T04:58:03.770-05:002011-01-14T04:58:03.770-05:00I'm not an anti-online person, but wow... thes...I'm not an anti-online person, but wow... these are some of the strangest claims I've ever read. There's room for a reasonable argument on the matter, but Posner's arguments are so simplified and just <i>weird</i>. How can one argue that it's better for the economy to have giants gobbling up small retailers? I'm honestly baffled.Meytal Radzinskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15805413335735169073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-7640390746849435172011-01-02T14:59:39.655-05:002011-01-02T14:59:39.655-05:00Poetry is my Achilles heel. I like many older poem...Poetry is my Achilles heel. I like many older poems - classic, romantic, rhymes in all the right places, etc. - but I've always had a hard time with the <i>getting it</i> part of poetry. I almost always feel like I'm missing something. Poetry is so <i>personal</i> - sometimes it clicks, sometimes it just... doesn't.<br /><br />I hope your new poetry books will click (and that you have a wonderful new reading year)!Meytal Radzinskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15805413335735169073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-47496573391280571822010-12-27T00:12:30.162-05:002010-12-27T00:12:30.162-05:00Hi, Brian! I personally think the name's more ...Hi, Brian! I personally think the name's more apt to conjure up a high class stripper or maybe a Showtime late night star. :) <br /><br />Thanks for the kind words about my post on Big Other. It's a tough subject with no easy answers, and I'm just glad to see the discussion happening. I LOVED Winter's Bone, and shamefully have not read the book but need to. I'm glad you read Roxane's post--I'm reading Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self right now and it's terrific.<br /><br />Oh, and the Fearing quote? I got that from a great essay Fearing wrote for Poetry magazine. The jstor version is here: http://www.jstor.org/pss/20582262<br /><br />Cheers and thanks again for applauding the loudest.Amberhttp://www.ambernoellesparks.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-74030828601301172522010-12-22T00:26:48.969-05:002010-12-22T00:26:48.969-05:00To be clear, none of my criticism of indie presses...To be clear, none of my criticism of indie presses above applies to Tachyon, who've been great all along.doctorowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14366961969843843570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-14828607013076589362010-12-21T15:03:17.559-05:002010-12-21T15:03:17.559-05:00There is no excuse for indie presses not to be wil...There is no excuse for indie presses not to be willing to hear their authors, of course. But when thinking collectively instead of just about one's self and one's own art, there are challenges. This doesn't excuse bad practices on the part of those indie presses, but I would hope we can keep these challenges in context so as to not turn other authors off of indie presses, which can in turn offer support for other new authors, especially experimental or overtly political authors marginalized by commercial houses. I'm all for calling on indie presses to act fairly - there is no excuse for lack of cooperation or communication with an author.<br /><br />And of course artists help one another out. I understand that. But the ultimate mentality is that the best will sell. It's raw capitalism. I don't buy that. This means there is a danger in publishing of the writer with the most friends in the industry selling the best - back to the ol' boys club. Of course authors give blurbs and read each other's work. But the artist friends here were doing labor often done by workers in the field - voiceovers, cover design. At least if artists want to help one another in this way (and here is where I become a real stinker, I realize, souring the conversation), why not set up a co-op to formalize the relationship so that wealth earned can be distributed? <br /><br />I fully realize that as an editor at a publishing house, I'm getting overly defensive, despite there being ways of incorporating editors into new publishing arrangements. I just worry when people strike out on their own boldly without a collective sense of improving things for the next group of authors, or for other authors facing similar or worse challenges to finding readers.Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09277741178537732462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-3036047484608012892010-12-21T10:03:56.379-05:002010-12-21T10:03:56.379-05:00Regarding the compensation for my friends; you'...Regarding the compensation for my friends; you'll see from the financial reports that the artists involved were compensated. When the voice actors asked for money, they got it too.<br /><br />But the arts are and always have been about friends helping each other. I spend at least as much time working to help other writer friends as I do composing new fiction on any given day, and I'm not the only one. <br /><br />It's normal for a writer to expect -- for example -- a scholar to sit down with her for a day to explain something she's trying to get right in a novel. It's normal for writers to ask each other to read their books for cover quotes or criticism. It's normal for writers to ask each other for introductions to agents or juries. It's normal for writers to stop work to teach other writers. It's normal for writers to donate their time and material goods (manuscripts, etc) to raise money for other writers. It's normal for writers to give each other free or nearly-free reprints for various anthology projects.<br /><br />Every single stage of my writing life -- from the day I finished my first story and brought it down to Bakka Books so Tanya Huff could read it for me to the day I donated my entire teach fee to Clarion West to replace the laptops the students there had had stolen -- has been characterized by this mutual exchange of gifts and favors. <br /><br />Writers calling on their peers to help them produce or promote a work is not abnormal, it's not a repudiation of the need for professionals to earn a living. It's part of the normal course by which artists conduct their financial and artistic lives and has been so for generations.<br /><br />Imagine if writers expected to get compensated (like an academic peer-review jury) for the time necessary to read another's works for a quote, or if writers shopped around paid mentions of one another's works in end-of-year roundups or public appearances -- these things have a cost to writers, but their value is in that they are given away for free. <br /><br />It's no break with history for a writer to ask another writer for a small favor. Rather, it's historically unprecendented to suggest that artists who seek and give favors are subverting the ability of artists to earn a living.doctorowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14366961969843843570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-27329565394152795292010-12-21T09:54:44.496-05:002010-12-21T09:54:44.496-05:00My last independent press short fiction publisher ...My last independent press short fiction publisher (Thunder's Mouth, who bought Four Walls, who did my first collection) was gobbled up in a furious round of mergers and acquisitions following the PGW bankruptcy. I don't even have an editor there any more. <br /><br />When Drexel College tried to order 3,000 copies of the last collection in order to give one to every undergrad in the school, the publisher told them "we just don't have that many" (this was with six months' notice). It was only my agent threatening to revert the rights to the book that got them to do a print-run and earn me the $7K worth of royalties they were willing to forego. <br /><br />When I set out to publish my most recent collection, not one independent publisher with substantial retail distribution was interested in buying such a work. My only choices were the very small presses that did almost all their business through direct sales or Amazon. There's nothing wrong with those presses -- they've published some great works -- but there's no sensible case to be made for giving 90% of my cover price to a company that has no sales-force and can't get my books onto shelves where readers browse.<br /><br />I like indie presses just fine, but they're hardly paragons of virtue. I dealt with one press that refused to run new cover film for a second or even third printing to incorporate a *killer* quote from Neil Gaiman (the same press did virtually no proofing on the book and never incorporated the typos that my readers reported after publication into subsequent printings). <br /><br />What's more, indie presses in my experience are even more of a pain in the ass about free ebooks than the congloms. When I can get a better Creative Commons package to distribute from Rupert Murdoch's HarperCollins than I can from the groovy folks at some NYC boutique press, there's something really, really wrong.doctorowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14366961969843843570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-59259217788740796192010-12-09T09:28:12.715-05:002010-12-09T09:28:12.715-05:00Don't forget Trident. Also, to be fair, Book E...Don't forget Trident. Also, to be fair, Book Exchange had a well-stocked cultural studies section with a charmingly idiosyncratic mix of academic and trade titles.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-24812951042687048652010-12-03T11:02:27.309-05:002010-12-03T11:02:27.309-05:00No, so you're right. The article was talking a...No, so you're right. The article was talking about the Boston metro area in general and not stating outright on ongoing problem: there are no independent (new) bookstores in Boston proper. More on this to come!Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09277741178537732462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-35578491517071752332010-12-03T09:50:55.767-05:002010-12-03T09:50:55.767-05:00Oh, and the Raven (also used) opened a pretty nice...Oh, and the Raven (also used) opened a pretty nice store on Newbury Street not too long ago (http://www.ravencambridge.com/).Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09277741178537732462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-29687460956841319152010-12-03T09:49:30.958-05:002010-12-03T09:49:30.958-05:00There is Jamaicaway Books in JP (http://jamaicaway...There is Jamaicaway Books in JP (http://jamaicawaybooks.com/), which may or may not be Boston proper. Otherwise, I think only used bookstores, such as the Brattle (http://www.brattlebookshop.com/) and Commonwealth Books (http://www.commonwealthbooks.com/). Sadly, Symposium Books closed their location in Kenmore Square recently - they sold remainders mostly. They still have locations in Providence, RI (http://www.symposiumbooks.com/shop/).Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09277741178537732462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-12528262571466996362010-11-08T14:49:25.530-05:002010-11-08T14:49:25.530-05:00Hi Brian.
This is a great post. And as a Boston r...Hi Brian.<br /><br />This is a great post. And as a Boston resident, I especially dig it. But what you don't realize (or maybe overlook) is that the entire festival itself is sponsored by large corporations like Google, Liberty Mutual, Bank of America and so forth. So. We shouldn't be surprised to see that the wonderful local indies get squeezed out by mega chains. (Heartbroken, yes, surprised no.)Beckyhttp://www.thereviewreview.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32896410.post-90841320945428252722010-11-08T14:48:32.472-05:002010-11-08T14:48:32.472-05:00Hi Brian.
This is a great post. And as a Boston r...Hi Brian.<br /><br />This is a great post. And as a Boston resident, I especially dig it. But what you don't realize (or maybe overlook) is that the entire festival itself is sponsored by large corporations like Google, Liberty Mutual, Bank of America and so forth. So. We shouldn't be surprised to see that the wonderful local indies get squeezed out by mega chains. (Heartbroken, yes, surprised no.)Beckyhttp://www.thereviewreview.netnoreply@blogger.com