Odd Lots

[jeff_duntemann]

• Sony just announced its own entry in the ultra-mobile PC arena, and it's an interesting one. The unit weighs only 1.2 pounds, with a 3.5" 1024 X 600 color display, built-in wireless a/b/g, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that may or may be especially useful, except for the thumb-and-peck school of typing. There's 512MB of RAM, 30 GB of hard drive

Comments

[anonymous]

Hi,

In response to the cited Slate article and your comments, I personally find it much easier these days to find any book I want. Using Amazon (us, uk, fr, de), Abe and ocasionally Ebay, I have ordered books from many other countries (mostly UK, France and Canada, but even from Australia and New Zealand) and in a week, or two or three they arrive at my door here in White Plains, NY. And of course for books published here in the US, Amazon has everything, price, convenience, easy free shipping and selection. I remember 10-12 years ago when I wanted to find the latest Iain Banks release from UK that I would ask everywhere and still not find it, now it is a click away and while shipping is a bit expensive it is still affordable. Similarly, for US releases, how many do they make it to even Borders or B&N? I have 5 Borders and n>6 B&N's around that I visit regularly, including their flagships in NYC, and there are many books that interest me that are not available in store, or maybe they are availble for a short period only. I really liked and even reread once your book The Cunning Blood but I do not remember seeing it in store, while after I read a review somewhere (maybe SFRevu ??) and decided it interests me, it was one click away on Amazon and 5-10 days later it arrived at my door. I do not know that much about the publishing industry since I am just a book "consumer", but for me these are almost the best of times to get books. I would say best, if the ebook market would take off in a nondrm, cross platform way (I read on Nokia 770 and Ebookwise 1150), but that is another story.

Liviu

[jeff_duntemann]

These are certainly the best of times to buy existing books--almost anything that's ever been in print can be had somewhere, and abebooks.com is the best place to start looking. The problems are with hidden issues like margins, cash flow weirdnesses, and the fact that only bestselling authors actually make much money writing anymore. Small publishers are giving up, and big publishers are laying off people and working their remaining staff to death. This doesn't bode well for the continuation of the current business model, which is really what I was talking about. Both wealth and decision-making power are flowing into fewer and fewer hands in publishing, and that worries me. With margins as thin as they are, whether Wal-Mart decides to carry a book may tip the decision as to whether the book is actually published or not, which is a scary notion. It's a race to the bottom.

I really appreciate your buying my novel. It's unclear whether The Cunning Blood will ever be in a retail store in hardcover, and I haven't yet gotten any nibbles on a paperback edition from a major publisher. (The book is now in Baen's slushpile somewhere, sigh.) The people who hear about it and buy it seem to like it, but the problem is that the book isn't there on retail shelves for browsers to pick up and flip through, so sales remain a fraction of what they might be with broad distribution.