Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
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The Publishing Death Spiral

Tags: networking, news, reading, writing
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  • 6 comments
dhyvd

Death Spiral?

dhyvd

July 31 2010, 22:42:27 UTC 10 years ago

Death Spirals are both scary (who likes death, much more, one that seems fated systematically) and exciting (as they provide opportunities as well), thanks for posting about it, I'll give it a look-see.
je_reviens

je_reviens

August 1 2010, 01:11:55 UTC 10 years ago

I was screaming about this back in 1998. The American Booksellers Assoc was screaming about this back in 1997. There was a whole movie around this issue -- You've Got Mail.

When Border and B&N moved into play, small independent booksellers went out of business. And it was far far worse than simply the American marketplace and capitalism doing what it do. Bc the independent booksellers were the champions of the midlist. Without them, the only books sure to get published were the blockbusters, the books that had a following. That meant that these corporate WalMart Evil Empire assholes were thus controlling the development and dissemination of IDEAS.

In the years since, many smaller publishers went out of business. Authors were dropped, their work could not be published. Horrible.

Since then the change in the marketplace bc of Amazon, discussed in this article, and called "The Long Tail" has given some hope for the future.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html

But it's true, publishing as it used to be is dead. I know, bc my career died along with it.
ysabetwordsmith

Thoughts

ysabetwordsmith

August 1 2010, 16:20:13 UTC 10 years ago

>> When Border and B&N moved into play, small independent booksellers went out of business. <<

I like having a huge store full of books. But it's not a good thing when all the bookstores carry mostly the same stock. It's a disaster when a tiny handful of people control -- or try to control -- what everyone else gets to read.

>>In the years since, many smaller publishers went out of business. Authors were dropped, their work could not be published. Horrible.<<

It's interesting, though -- small publishers are making a comeback. They're doing it by scarfing up the great books that the mainstream presses won't touch. Readers are figuring out that one of the places to find really interesting stuff to read is in the small presses. So that's good.
natasiakith

natasiakith

August 1 2010, 05:02:26 UTC 10 years ago

Odd. I thought booksellers brought attention to things by giving shelfspace for presentation and large numbers of books.

'Order to net' just sounds well, it sounds silly the way it's described. The markup on 80% of 10,000 is more than the markup on 80% of 8,000.

Besides which, some people buy things the same way lemmings make travel arrangements. If you're lowering the number visibly present in a shop, you are basically saying 'the new one kind of sucks' to said lemming-folk.

I actually have it easy, though. I can render a piece of jewelry for parts without too much trouble. Not so easy with books.
ysabetwordsmith

Well...

ysabetwordsmith

August 1 2010, 16:17:01 UTC 10 years ago

>>I thought booksellers brought attention to things by giving shelfspace for presentation and large numbers of books.<<

That's what they do with the books from famous authors that will sell many copies and/or books that publishers pay them to put in a special display. Almost all of the books get put on a shelf with the spine out, one or a few copies per store, for less than three weeks. You can see how this is not very helpful to authors or readers.

>>'Order to net' just sounds well, it sounds silly the way it's described. The markup on 80% of 10,000 is more than the markup on 80% of 8,000. <<

It's also a way of discouraging career writers. You can get your foot in the door with one or two books, but if those aren't best sellers, the industry doesn't want you anymore. They overlook the fact that skill requires time to develop -- a writer's first book is rarely their best.

I'm really happy that more alternatives are opening up for writers and readers.

Deleted comment

ysabetwordsmith

You're welcome!

ysabetwordsmith

August 1 2010, 16:03:46 UTC 10 years ago

I'm glad it caught your interest.

I like to keep an eye on publishing trends. I have to agree, when the aquiring editors don't actually have the power to buy and back good books, something is wrong. They shouldn't be treated like slushpile readers, they're experienced professionals who are supposed to be making the important choices.