Bryan Appleyard makes an excellent point, and I'm really surprised that it hasn't been made with such force before. In this spectacle of the Fall of Traditional Publishing, the bookstores have put on the expression of an hapless bystander, and I don't think they can wear that mask any longer.
Power belongs with readers before it belongs with authors, I'd say.
I don't know if POD is the panacea Bryan Appleyard says it is, but he's right about chain bookstores.
I recently posted thus, upon reading that Borders was coming to Dubai:
It's a shame our friends in the UAE have had to wait so long for corporate-dictated shelving policies, aisles crowded with book-related products, severe understaffing, and polite, even perky employees who know zero about the products they stock.
If Arabic has no word for "mid-list," it certainly won't need one now that Borders has arrived.
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Detectives Beyond Borders "Because Murder is More Fun Away From Home" http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com
Appleyard wrote: 'POD will put power back where it belongs, with the publishers.'
ReplyDeleteHe's probably right, but I wish POD would put power back where it really belongs, with the authors.
Bryan Appleyard makes an excellent point, and I'm really surprised that it hasn't been made with such force before. In this spectacle of the Fall of Traditional Publishing, the bookstores have put on the expression of an hapless bystander, and I don't think they can wear that mask any longer.
ReplyDeletePower belongs with readers before it belongs with authors, I'd say.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if POD is the panacea Bryan Appleyard says it is, but he's right about chain bookstores.
I recently posted thus, upon reading that Borders was coming to Dubai:
It's a shame our friends in the UAE have had to wait so long for corporate-dictated shelving policies, aisles crowded with book-related products, severe understaffing, and polite, even perky employees who know zero about the products they stock.
If Arabic has no word for "mid-list," it certainly won't need one now that Borders has arrived.
========================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com