Imagine a World of Literary Spewage...

[frostokovich]

Hey, remember when about five years back books were considered the cool thing to give somebody, and literature seemed to be making a hard-fought comeback, clawing its way up the crumbling hillside of mass entertainment?  Well, guess who lost their footing and fell all the way back down the cliff?  Guess who's lying, bleeding and broken, in the

Comments

[trollpete]

I worked, several years ago now, in the west coast "flagship" store of Chapters/Indigo (the Canadian version of B&N/Borders -- big box full o' books and more!), with three big floors for your shopping pleasure. When I started, the entire first floor was the new releases, bargain books and gifts. By the time I left, just over a year later, the first floor was gifts, and oh yeah, bargain books and a table or two of new releases (Oprah's picks and Heather's picks, Heather being the CEO).

The nature of the gifts changed too - went from book related paraphernalia -- book lights, covers, journals, etc. -- to candles, wrapping paper, jewelry.

Jewelry.

I agree with trying to support the independents, on other principles as well, having seen a local book store rise and fall several times (currently again closed, because apparently local support means nothing in Ohio.)

Imagine a world where all you could read is the indigestible garbage scrawled by Dan Brown. Yeah, that made your hair stand up like Buckwheat's on The Little Rascals, didn't it?

These two lines make me want to hug you - don't take it personally (a friend from high school and I, twenty-something years later, still mime the hair-standing-up phenomenon a la Buckwheat when freaky things come up in conversation.)

Finally, I find it particularly funny (funny-peculiar, not funny-haha) that we have here an author eager to do readings and signings and self-promo (a constant complaint I've seen from publishers is that this is an anomaly) isn't getting more support from either the publishers or the bookstores (you know, the people with a supposed interest in selling books, I mean product)? Or am I reading too much into that part?

Bookstore support

[frostokovich]

Well, after a chat with my editor, I have a little more perspective on the problem with the chains, and to an extent anyway it's due to self-publishing bozos who petition and pester the bookstores like crazy to get their stuff put on the shelves along with the rest of the stock--and also authors who are their own worst enemies and will call up and harangue the store for not having their books in stock. Yeah, yell at them, I'm sure that'll make them three times more likely to carry your books....

So while I still can't help but see the signs that the books are themselves being marginalized, that's not the whole picture.

greg

Re: Bookstore support

[trollpete]

mmmmmmyeah, I can certainly see that to an extent, but B&N (corporate at least) brought some of that on themselves too, with the whole authorhouse - publish with us and we'll stock your book - deal. It may be long gone, but it was big news for a while, and the withdrawal of that program wasn't covered much. Can't help but wonder if that's one of the reasons why Borders has pulled away from Amazon/Booksurge. Not that that helps, or even matters, to the local manager.

But then self-publishing industry has also gone a long way toward damaging the book itself, and its reputation. I suppose it's part of the price of technology.

On the plus side, I've had some success in talking local B&Ns into at least ordering a couple copies of some books from authors I've supported - even with a small press, as long as the book is returnable, many are willing to listen to a spiel for a couple minutes. What I've seen in my experience is that it varies widely from store to store and manager to manager -- some wouldn't give me the time of day.