I worked for a little while at a small Canadian publishing house, so it's really fascinating for me to get the bookseller's side of things. Glad to hear that you think the system is ridiculous too! Loved the lizard analogy and YES, AMEN to figuring out a way to get that lizard's tail longer using ebooks and POD machines.
Buuuut I've noticed that a lot of booksellers seem to be very traditional and, er, allergic to technology? I remember dealing with people who could barely use a computer and seemed resentful of their fax machines. It would take a LOT of convincing and handholding to get these old-fashioned types (and there are a lot of them) to think of ebooks and POD as their friends instead of their enemies, and then to train them to use the technology. Plus, booksellers are always short on funds, so the risk would be, well, incredibly risky (I guess lack of risktaking is kind of the whole industry's problem, huh).
I'd say that if anyone has the financial clout to start selling books in a new way, it's Cerberus, ironically, but like you said they'd probably just screw it up or use it for evil.
I do think something is going to have to change or else the industry is going to be in even worse trouble that it is now. I'd love to see more long-tailed lizards out there. I'd also love to see more backlist books being sold instead of returned and shredded (the company I worked at didn't shred books while I was there because my boss hated the idea, but we had to consider the option). And I'd love it if small-time authors could get bigger royalty cheques for a longer amount of time, what with all the work they pour into writing/editing/marketing their books. Seeing what those authors go through (especially in the small Canadian market) actually made me NOT want to become a writer. Sad, isn't it?
Randomly dropping in
Date: 30 Jan 2009 12:10 am (UTC)Buuuut I've noticed that a lot of booksellers seem to be very traditional and, er, allergic to technology? I remember dealing with people who could barely use a computer and seemed resentful of their fax machines. It would take a LOT of convincing and handholding to get these old-fashioned types (and there are a lot of them) to think of ebooks and POD as their friends instead of their enemies, and then to train them to use the technology. Plus, booksellers are always short on funds, so the risk would be, well, incredibly risky (I guess lack of risktaking is kind of the whole industry's problem, huh).
I'd say that if anyone has the financial clout to start selling books in a new way, it's Cerberus, ironically, but like you said they'd probably just screw it up or use it for evil.
I do think something is going to have to change or else the industry is going to be in even worse trouble that it is now. I'd love to see more long-tailed lizards out there. I'd also love to see more backlist books being sold instead of returned and shredded (the company I worked at didn't shred books while I was there because my boss hated the idea, but we had to consider the option). And I'd love it if small-time authors could get bigger royalty cheques for a longer amount of time, what with all the work they pour into writing/editing/marketing their books. Seeing what those authors go through (especially in the small Canadian market) actually made me NOT want to become a writer. Sad, isn't it?