Friday Apr 10, 2009
Hide behind the magazine rack and giggle about this
On e-books:
- Elizabeth takes the culinary perspective: "For one thing, it will add yet another lasagna layer to the deep dish of competition for book sales." (Side note: Elizabeth Bluemle and Josie Leavitt of Flying Pig Bookstore have taken over the day-to-day blogging at ShelfTalker. We'll just have to make sure they bring Alison back for a guest post on her upcoming wedding.)
- Dustin: "E-readers make more sense for folks like booksellers and sales reps who read massive quantities of books as a matter of course. (That’s right, even at home in my underwear, half-asleep or standing up on the train, when I read I’m working to be a better bookseller. You’re welcome.)"
- Jessica's take: "And ebook-reading booksellers are the perfect group to start spreading that word, to make sure that we can make ebooks a part of our business model rather than just more competition."
- A less optimistic view: "If I were a bookstore owner right now, it would look to me like the last few frames of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid right now, where the Federales and the special allstar posse finally catches up with the charming, slightly antiquated bank robbers."
- Patrick looks at the big picture: "I think tiered pricing is the smartest, fairest model for e-content. It won’t be the format of a product but rather the speed and the timing of how and when the product is delivered that will determine the price." (And Rich jumps in with this insight: "The cost of production is always wholly irrelevant to the average consumer. People want to feel like they got a good deal no matter the item, the purchase timing or the sales channel.")
- Literanista wants to add a touch of style: "If only eReaders could all have a color display and be as 'pretty' as this I think many eReader owners would be happy."
- Nicki looks at her own reading habits: "I don't think the eBook signals the 'death of the book' anymore than the stylos signaled the death of poetry. For one thing, I find it hard to believe that a piece of technology that will last about two to three years before becoming obsolete will be capable of replacing a piece of technology that has lasted several thousand years without becoming irrelevant."
On the book business:
- Josh gets some help explaining why to shop indie: "But even if the indie bookseller doesn't know a damn thing about X, they at least know something about the books on display–when you say, 'Hey, is this good' they’ll have an answer."
- Further analysis of returns: "Think of how many 'skips' you get already on a fully returnable list. Given these factors, it will in any event remain tempting, if not an outright requirement, for many publishers to continue to offer returnability in the hopes of getting in to stores at all."
- The reviews aren't the only reason to bookmark Dear Author: "Amazon is thinking about 2020. Mainstream publishing is thinking about how to survive 2009."
- What happens when lit people and business people try to talk to each other: "Unspoken in what is essentially a financial analyst’s take is consideration of the cultural impact of forcing literature, for reasons of 'monetization,' into a thing of new and solely interactive technology."
On children's and YA books:
- As anyone who's taken a pre-order from a nine-year-old can attest: "When I was reading in elementary school and junior high, I don’t feel like I thought of books as new or old. Books just existed. It never occurred to me to wonder when The Tripods books came out or when there would be more of them... Now, of course, kids are often acutely aware of release dates—and not just of blockbusters."
- For artistic fans of The Gruffalo: "Aspiring artists are challenged to come up with their vision for Freddie and the Fairy, and submit character sketches as well as an two-page illustration of a scene from the story."
- It's back!: "Finally, last Thursday, an agreement was reached between Viking and the McCloskey estate for the entire body of McCloskey’s work. Blueberries for Sal will return to print, and will, along with the rest of McCloskey’s picture books (including Make Way for Ducklings, Homer Price and Lentil), remain at Penguin."
- Here's your chance to plug your favorite under-appreciated book of 2008: "Instead of retreating to a bestseller mentality, let's look at it as a treasure hunt, trying to find those undiscovered gems."
- As a practical matter, no. But I love the image: "Do I create a new section for 'older teens'– basically a blinking neon light that says 'there's sex in these books, so you should hide behind the magazine rack and giggle with your friends about them'?"
Miscellany:
- It's only the 3015th article to make the suggestion, but I'd like to point out that I currently have no plans for Tuesday night: "Find a local independent bookstore that encourages browsing and/or hosts readings. You can bond with your date over favorite books and enjoy the atmosphere."
- For the children in my life: "Help baby search for subatomic particles and explore the universe." (via)
- I always thought his name rhymed with "rainy": "I was delighted to read in William Logan’s latest collection of poetry criticism, “Our Savage Art,” that Seamus Heaney has entered the Cockney lexicon as rhyming slang for bikini."
- In case you thought the University of Chicago was taking itself too seriously: "Thus drawing fascinating connections between the myth of Bigfoot and modern Americans' relationship to wilderness, individuality, class, consumerism, and the media, Buhs' new book offers the definitive take on this elusive beast."
Posted at 04:38PM Apr 10, 2009 by Sarah Rettger in General |
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