Comments on: A Literary-Bookish Discussion at FrontBurner.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:19:42 +0000

The great homogenization of available books is looming, because publishers struggle and so are less willing to give an unknown author a chance, so we end up with 15 new James Patterson’s every month.

Only buying used books, while more cost-effective, hurts authors and publishers. Authors don’t get royalties for the sale of used books. That beleagured genius living in a tire behind 7-11 could use some help…

Buying only online ensures that eventually you’ll HAVE to buy online, because brick and mortar locations will be gone.

Buying from the box stores hurts your community and the local availability of books, since the boxies have a very limited number of publishers that they deal with on account of the economies of numbers; smaller publishers are under-represented and the self-published author may as well just sell books out of the trunk of their car.

If you want the list of available books to look about as exciting as the NYT Bestseller’s list, then by all means farm your money to Amazon/B&N/Borders. If you think Nora Roberts is all you need for ‘literature’ or that David McCullough is all you need for history, then ensure the failure of lesser known authors by making it financially unfeasible to publish them.

By: Tom Hendricks

Tom Hendricks — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:26:12 +0000

My two favorites are Paperbacks Plus in Lakewood - great location, store, staff, and
fun selection; and the giant Half Price on Northwest Highway for its selection.
When I worked at one of the last Mom and Pop bookstores here in Dallas we faced some very tough times. Customers would come to us for service, the hard to find stuff, but buy the bulk of their main sellers at the chains to save money. In essence we were doing all the hard work and the book chains were getting all the easy profit. Also note this - toward the end of that stores existence it was cheaper to buy books from Wal-Mart ,mark them up, and resell them; then it was to buy them from book distributors. How can any business survive that?
PS - with all the book coverage on KERA, there is little to no hard news on publishing, or guests who are literary advocates for change, or indie publishers, or zine coverage, or etc. etc. How about treating publishing as news too?
Just once I’d like a book show interviewer to ask an author why his book is so expensive, so padded, and why he got such an obscene amount of money as an advance!

By: Bill Holston

Bill Holston — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:45:36 +0000

I agree, it was a very spirited and interesting discussion. I think I mentioned Amazon over there, but I definitely did not intend to communicate
“forget bookstores”, I only wished to point out it’s where I buy most of my books. I love bookstores and will sometimes buy a book after browsing. It’s not just the convenience of Amazon, it’s the technology of being able to search for books and read reviews that makes that so appealing. There is a cost savings on used books as well. I mean, today I bought
The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur for $1.50. List is 24.95. It’s just hard to say no to that.

You make a great point about book signings, and ambiance of a cluttered old bookstore can’t be beat.

By: Bill M.

Bill M. — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:21:37 +0000

it would be nice if we had a book store or two that actually looked like a bookstore. Paperbacks Plus looks the bookiest, and it’s amazing what you can find there.
Borders was book-storish before they started sweeping the shelves bare. Apparently corporate decided that customers will only buy a book they can see the cover-on. In fact, real book lovers find clutter comforting. They like shelves as crowded as a Tokyo subway. Unlike the snatch-and-grab customers who just want the latest Jackie Collins and an iced mocha, book lovers browse. They pull things off the shelf and buy. They’re the ones who walk out the door with three or four books at a time.
A visit to any B&N, by the way, is always a painful experience. That empty space. Those tables of picture books nobody wants — “The Color Book of Slugs and Snails” — and sad remainders. And what kind of marketing ineptitude led them to build across from an already established Borders, at a location that can barely support one book store?