this…this is meaningful…

[mizkit]

Author Kristin Kathryn Rusch writes about a major change in book distribution and what it potentially means for writers.

It’s a really long article. It’s really worth reading. The *exceedingly* short take-away of it is that you may soon be seeing copies of NO DOMINION on bookstore shelves near you…

(x-posted from The Essential Kit)

Comments

[deborahblakehps]

Wow. That's pretty eye-opening. And I have no idea what it means for me, a debut author with a NYC house. But still...interesting.

Not all of the changes in publishing are bad. And that's very good news indeed.

Thanks so much for sharing this.

[irishkate]

I can honestly say I know as little about the industry after as before except to know that things are changing and one of the big changes is indie books.

[gows]

That . . . kind of made my brain hurt. Too much stuff I'm not familiar with (like the standard model and How It Works).

However, the change she describes sounds veeeerrryyy iiiiiinteresting.

[mizkit]

I had to read it twice to take it all in and I know the language. :)

[ruford42]

Very interesting. I found returns odd when I worked in a book store...dang, two decades ago?? Especially since the bulk of what was housed in that store were mass market paperbacks, which had the same return policy as the magazines -- at least with Ingram -- in that the front cover was ripped off and sent back, presumably to avoid the extra expense of shipping a bunch of books no one bought twice

[mizkit]

Well, it seems to mean that a new CE Murphy book will come up in the system, given that it suggests that the new KKRusch book came up in it automagically. It's still not particularly helpful if you haven't got an established name, perhaps, but it's an interesting change!

[ruford42]

Yes, very interesting...Strangely though no book stores are letting me order Shaman Rises or Stonemaster just yet!

For online stores, recommendation systems can be helpful -- though I'm surprised that none of the systems I've dealt with so far let you be alerted when there's a new release for a title either by a given author or a series.

One thing I liked about the days I was able to deal with an independent book store, is they'd hear from the other local people and were able to offer recommendations and they would also review the new releases blurbs from Ingram -- Though, honestly I'd be afraid to try and keeping up with that today given the sheer number of authors who've sold world rights, not to mention the various formats.

[burger_eater]

Ugh. I wish she had someone who could write the 300-word version of her posts.

[mizkit]

That's part of why I rarely read her blog, yeah

[burger_eater]

Hey, don't say it was too long. It was actually the right length. This conveys the information without a few thousand extra words of back-patting and condescension.

[mizkit]

O.O :)