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kinzelWe had a quiet Christmas Eve, resorting to a toast and our first two episodes of The Last Airbender, or Avatar ... and we also had some fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and a cannoli ... the cannoli since I couldn't find any mincemeat pie at local stores -- the big grocery usually go to said "they were phased out last year" ...
In the meanwhile, I continue keeping up as best I can with Haysus the Asus while the big machine will reluctanly let me find the CMOS set-up almost anything else falls victim to the Sony built in rescue partition's intevention ... I'm goign to download (via Rolanni's machine) one of the Linux rescue disks and see if that will get me in to the dernned thing ...
In case you *didn't* notice the first thing I rescued from the big-box-back-up files was chapter 38 of Theo Waitley's Saltation adventure, which has been a up online a few days now.... But the melt-down has cramped my plans for Theo since I also have a big-honking hardcopy of Longeye to proof in the next three days, and we still have Christmas dinner and a few visits to do....
Which brings up the eternal question: why is it that editors *always* send proof materials out just before holidays and want them back just after holidays, meaning that the authors have to proof "through" holidays to get them done? We've even seen writers who go to conventions during holidays reduced to doing page proofs *during panels and convention meals* in order to make things happen...
On another matter of interest if not importance, I'm wondering if there's a need for a "we support readers" site promoting independent and used bookstores in the US. I mention this because there is an ill-thought call on the part of some writers to make used bookstores pay royalties on sales of used books. Aside from the simple nightmare of accounting, there's also the matter of fairness ... who would actually get paid - the authors or the publishers? In that case, should used car dealers forward royalties to GM? If I sell my used Subaru should I send a check to Japan?
Umm ... the doctrine of first sale covers it -- used records, books, shoes, cars, drumsets, computers, Barbie Dolls, salt shakers, kitchen knives, and all of those things are real property and once sold can be disposed of --resold, given away, bequeathed and all that, by the new owner.
Me -- as a writer I think a reader who no longer wants or needs a book should be able to sell it, and a store owner should be able to retail used goods without oceans of paperwork or computer filing.
From a practical standpoint, for me and us, when one publisher gave up on us, it was the used bookstores that hand-sold our used books and kept us in front of readers, and when we went to conventions we autographed thousands of used books ... for readers who wanted more. So, we support used bookstores, we sign used books at conventions, bookstores, and fleamarkets. Readers deserve the opportunity, especially in these times when jobs and cash are at a premium, to buy a used book. Yes we need to sell new books, too,but used book dealers are not taking food out of our pockets.
Merry Christmas, Good Yule, Happy Holidays .. read a book this week!
In the meanwhile, I continue keeping up as best I can with Haysus the Asus while the big machine will reluctanly let me find the CMOS set-up almost anything else falls victim to the Sony built in rescue partition's intevention ... I'm goign to download (via Rolanni's machine) one of the Linux rescue disks and see if that will get me in to the dernned thing ...
In case you *didn't* notice the first thing I rescued from the big-box-back-up files was chapter 38 of Theo Waitley's Saltation adventure, which has been a up online a few days now.... But the melt-down has cramped my plans for Theo since I also have a big-honking hardcopy of Longeye to proof in the next three days, and we still have Christmas dinner and a few visits to do....
Which brings up the eternal question: why is it that editors *always* send proof materials out just before holidays and want them back just after holidays, meaning that the authors have to proof "through" holidays to get them done? We've even seen writers who go to conventions during holidays reduced to doing page proofs *during panels and convention meals* in order to make things happen...
On another matter of interest if not importance, I'm wondering if there's a need for a "we support readers" site promoting independent and used bookstores in the US. I mention this because there is an ill-thought call on the part of some writers to make used bookstores pay royalties on sales of used books. Aside from the simple nightmare of accounting, there's also the matter of fairness ... who would actually get paid - the authors or the publishers? In that case, should used car dealers forward royalties to GM? If I sell my used Subaru should I send a check to Japan?
Umm ... the doctrine of first sale covers it -- used records, books, shoes, cars, drumsets, computers, Barbie Dolls, salt shakers, kitchen knives, and all of those things are real property and once sold can be disposed of --resold, given away, bequeathed and all that, by the new owner.
Me -- as a writer I think a reader who no longer wants or needs a book should be able to sell it, and a store owner should be able to retail used goods without oceans of paperwork or computer filing.
From a practical standpoint, for me and us, when one publisher gave up on us, it was the used bookstores that hand-sold our used books and kept us in front of readers, and when we went to conventions we autographed thousands of used books ... for readers who wanted more. So, we support used bookstores, we sign used books at conventions, bookstores, and fleamarkets. Readers deserve the opportunity, especially in these times when jobs and cash are at a premium, to buy a used book. Yes we need to sell new books, too,but used book dealers are not taking food out of our pockets.
Merry Christmas, Good Yule, Happy Holidays .. read a book this week!
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no subject
2008-12-25 16:54 (UTC)Where can I find out more about this anti-used-bookstore movement? I'd like to blog it on the e-book blog for which I write.
And also, Merry Christmas!
no subject
2008-12-25 17:03 (UTC)The international organization of multi-published authors
2008-12-25 17:34 (UTC)I hope none of the members actually write like that!
And shades of DRM!
no subject
2008-12-25 19:19 (UTC)Blog post up. (http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/12/25/should-second-hand-book-stores-pay-royalties)
Yes we need to sell new books, too,but used book dealers are not taking food out of our pockets.
2008-12-25 17:25 (UTC)And I'll probably buy the new Baen paperback book versions. They'd be a bit more portable than the omnibus which does not fit in a jacket pocket. :)
no subject
2008-12-25 17:26 (UTC)no subject
2008-12-25 17:38 (UTC)~ Kath
Rule of Thumb
2008-12-25 19:57 (UTC)no subject
2008-12-25 20:05 (UTC)Thanks too, for your public stance on the matter. I know that most authors are not in a position to be terribly generous with their works. But generosity often begets itself. I hope that is the case for you guys. You certainly do deserve all the blessings that can be heaped upon you.!
no subject
2008-12-26 00:24 (UTC)Second, as you point out, this is not a zero-sum-game -- selling used books does not remove money from the new book sales routes. In fact, given that advertising and PR funding for individual books and authors is somewhat limited, it can be considered a major method of outreach -- hook them on a used book, then watch them walk over and buy a stack of new books! Just like the Baen Free Library (entire volumes of books given away for free? And it builds the main sales?) and other "giveaways." If anything, it would seem that the authors might want to promote the used bookstores? (Aha, that's your "we support readers" site -- make it a meme or a party or something.)
Sorry, done foaming at the mouth for now -- but this seems like a thought whose consequences have not been thought through very well (and antecedents -- why do they want to try to bind the mouths of the oxen now, when times are tight?). It sounds simply -- let's grab that money -- but it's a beancounter's procedure in a very complex field. I would guess the result would be driving readers away from a field that is already struggling to keep numbers up.
Avatar
2008-12-27 04:45 (UTC)Used books are a multi-million dollar industry?!
2008-12-28 00:33 (UTC)I don't this will be enforceable, at first glance anyway.
Second glance - WHAT multi-million dollar industry?!!!!
Only if you're talking about rare/1st edition/antiquarian books.
I stock no more than 30% used/70% new here and I can tell you the
profit margin on the used is probably half what the new books are.
That's because two days a week, I do one-dollar-a-used-book sales
and boy, the public comes out for it. One dollar doesn't pay for database backups every night. :/
The idea behind used books is to fulfill an addiction/market that
new books can't (e.g. too expensive). And once the public has grabbed the first book in a series, they're liable to buy more of the same author.
The end run will be that libraries and bookstores give away, burn or pulp these used books before they track royalties.
Sorry, sorry, backing away from the soapbox now.
Lauretta
used book sales
2008-12-28 22:50 (UTC)your check
2008-12-30 04:50 (UTC)editors and bookstores
2009-01-19 11:00 (UTC)As to a site for independent or used bookstores, I wish someone would set one up. I am close to Portland, Oregon, so one would think that there would be loads of bookstores available with a town that large that also contains several colleges. Not so, and with several of the national chains leaving the Portland and Salem area, I am left with E-bay and Amazon to attempt to find my want list on.
In another vein, thanks for finishing Theo's story (and leaving us hanging, wanting more). I can't wait to see how you and Sharon connect the trail of hints you've left from Cantra to Val Con, dodging over to The Uncle (and Dulcy, Arin, and the Tomas clan), then to Jethri, back to the Uncle, over to the Clan Korval timeline up to Surebleak, then to Theo and Win Ton, and back again to The Uncle and Korval. Wonderful, you (and Sharon, of course) have left sooo many "pre-set hooks" to continue on in so many directions... I can't decide whose story I want to see next. Will it be Jethri and the story of the Bechimo? Or more on Daav, Val Con, or Pat Rin, not to mention Val Con's lovely sisters Nova and Anthora, Shan and Pricilla, let alone Gordy! Possibly further on The Uncle and his seemingly eternal cohorts and their study of the forbidden old tech. I drool just considering the possible story lines to be completed by your fertile imaginations, so PLEASE, don't let Murphy's way with computers, deadlines, editors, holidays, the flu, and last (but not least), the weather, slow you down or bum you out when your avid fans are sending you both mental cries of MORE, WRITE SOME MORE!! Write on, necessity exists.