Sufficient unto the day are the tasks therein

[rolanni]

...or something.

So far this day have identified various fora that need a course in the basics of genre fiction, if only they knew it. Including the local fine arts college. Is it a Bad Sign if I only recognize one of the "nationally known" authors who have recently graced the creative writing program? I have at least one application coming my way, and will shortly get back on the phone and see if I can't increase that number significantly.

Yesterday, I received the monthly newsletter from one of the writers' groups I belong to. The members of this particular writers' group have been caught up -- wrongly, so I think -- with the Evils of Used Bookstores, claiming that USBs take food out of their mouths, or at least $ignificant ca$h out of their pockets. I've signed off the listserv and am considering letting my membership lapse because of this -- and, frankly, because of the headbanging administered to those who try to say that USBs are not in all cases, to all writers, a Very, Very Bad Thing. So, I was not only extremely happy to see that a member of the group has firmly and rationally taken on the Group Wisdom, but that the article runs on the first page of the newsletter. Well done, author and newsletter editor.

And now -- back to the phones.

Comments

[od-mind.livejournal.com]

There is a depressingly common tendency for people to assume that any book that was purchased from a USB would have been purchased new, at full (or at least discount retail) price, had the used copy not been available. This is sort of like assuming that if there were no fast food restaurants, everyone would dine out on aged beef and fine wine instead.

There is every reason to think that any lost sales due to the availability of cheap secondhand copies are more than made up for by increased exposure and distribution of the writer's work. (The Baen Free Library experiment, while not directly comparable, has shown that the potential value of increased exposure is huge, even when you give away electronic copies for free.)

Well, more than made up for in the case of good writers, that is. Those writers who depend on hardcover sales to the unwary may well suffer, but it's hard to work up a lot of sympathy for those writers.

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

Indeed, there's no other way a person like me could give away starter copies of books to friends without decimating my collection or eating nothing but ramen. Alas that Liaden books are completely absent from UBSs as far as I can tell, so they can't receive that treatment.

[kinzel.livejournal.com]

"Alas that Liaden books are completely absent from UBSs as far as I can tell, so they can't receive that treatment."

This isn't always the case since we sign a fair number of books every year with UBS stamps oe stickers on them. I should say we gladly sign a fair number -- what use is a book to us if someone reads it and doesn't like it and throws it away? Better that someone read it and like it enough to cart it to a signing somewhere.

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

Well, I never see them there, and I look for them whenever I can. As far as I can tell, whenever they show up they're grabbed by some other hoarder, so they don't circulate freely like John Grishams or Robert Jordans do.

[oberon.livejournal.com]

Well said.

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

I have to say that I don't much care for the hostility toward used book stores (and in some cases, even to libraries) that one sometimes sees among working writers. I know that I, at least, would feel like ten different kinds of hypocrite if I complained in that fashion, because I remember how much I depended upon both used book stores and libraries when I was a teen-and-college-aged writer-in-embryo.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I know that I, at least, would feel like ten different kinds of hypocrite if I complained in that fashion, because I remember how much I depended upon both used book stores and libraries when I was a teen-and-college-aged writer-in-embryo.

This was true in my case, as well. Also? During the decade we were out of print, we know of several used book sellers who hand sold the then-three Liaden books, building recognition and awareness of the series. In a very real way, used bookstore sales made it possible for us to come back from the dead.

Hard for me to see them as the Bad Guy, here...

[od-mind.livejournal.com]

During the decade we were out of print, we know of several used book sellers who hand sold the then-three Liaden books, building recognition and awareness of the series. In a very real way, used bookstore sales made it possible for us to come back from the dead.

I suspected that was the case, but didn't want to assert it as fact.

I think a very similar thing happened with the works of Barry Hughart, Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, Hope Mirrlees, and probably a few others I'm not remembering off the top of my head. Word-of-mouth can only work when there are physical copies of the books to accompany it, and libraries generally don't acquire out-of-print books they don't already own.

I hope such a revival may be happening now for the out-of-print works of Walter Jon Williams, Alexei Panshin, Lawrence Watt-Evans, and others. And used books will be necessary for those, too.

[scaleslea.livejournal.com]

It's just silly to bash used bookstores. Think about it. Where do used bookstores get their books? They either get them from avid readers who desperately need money to buy new books, in which case they actually promote retail sales. Or they get them from the families of deceased avid reader because the families don't read and are looking to score a quick buck. In this case, the USBs are preventing good literature from being destroyed.

And who buys books in used bookstores? People who are dedicated to reading who are either very strapped for cash or are looking for extremely rare and hard to find books. Neither of these groups is going to be buying retail in the first place. And the avid readers will go back to buying retail when their finances improve.

It's like complaning that antique malls are hurting the retail furniture market. Stupid.

Doc

Used Book Stores

[(Anonymous)]

I always seem to miss the best books/authors in the clutter at a big book store. I do better in used book stores. I've discovered some of the best and brightest that way, Sharon & Steve, CJ Cherryh, Lois McMaster Bujold. Having test read and enjoyed, I am far more apt to shop first purchase venues. I also have first editions of the 3 original Liaden novels purchased through USBs. Have to vote for USBs... Shawna