The good news is now I don’t have to worry about finishing Vanishing Point, A Gathering of Crows, or any of my other novels on time, because there will be no one left to publish, distribute, or sell them.
Brian Keene
Author and Anti-Hero
The good news is now I don’t have to worry about finishing Vanishing Point, A Gathering of Crows, or any of my other novels on time, because there will be no one left to publish, distribute, or sell them.
And then there are the layoffs that just hit major distributor Baker & Taylor…
Grife, talk about an industry wide harbinger of doom… And I’m sure you’ll deilver on “Vanishing Point” in true professional manner, too, so no worries there, my friend, no worries there.
Hummm…never good to hear this kind of stuff. I guess all the work I did to bring out my first book was all for not. lol
Cannibalism isn’t so bad. We all taste like chicken!
(And kudos to Roy for using the word “Grife”!)
These things are cyclical. Much like the financial markets and what type of car is in vogue. I think that the industry will turn around when people actually start to look at the movies that they make from books and go ‘wow, the book really is a lot better than that movie.’
We have survived downturns before. We had one in the 1950′s as televisions started to get big and another one in the 1930′s with the great depression. What people will want to read remains to be seen.
And meanwhile, on other fronts, Days Of Our Lives fired John Black and Marlena. http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/are-daytime-soaps-doomed–43
WTF, dude, WTF.
Yeah, but they kept Patch and Kayla so not all is lost. Sucks to see John and Marlena go, though.
What ever happened to The Tunnel? It that one dead and gone?
Just listen to some Mercyful Fate. You’ll feel better.
I’m inclined to stick my fingers in my ears and chant “La La La”, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.
When they look back on this era, will they be inclined to label it “And The E-Book Cometh”? Who knows.
The entire ordeal is disheartening at best, a noose-dangler at worst.
All will recover over the next six to eight months. All the panic fuels the fire of downturn. After people chill out things will bounce back but it will be a good while till we get back where we were. And Brian, if I have to drive to PA to buy a printed off copy of your work then so be it!
Well there is always Self Publishing I suppose. Ooo talk about collectables. Seriously though, I am sure all will turn out for the best. And we will all be reading our favorite novelists shortly. Or tuning into Zombies and Eating the Publishers.
The digital music revolution was an unstoppable, overwhelming grass-roots tide the industry was eventually forced to embrace. They same dynamic is NOT at work with books, no matter how much many in the industry wish for it. What is out there is only a case of a struggling industry grasping for solutions and trying to apply another industry’s new paradigm. But there is no unstoppable, overwhelming grass-roots tide here. So no, I don’t think we’re about to see the advent of an e-book age. There’s a niche, and I don’t see it moving much beyond that. Just my two-plus cents.
Wow, what a bummer! Will this delay The Cage? I’ve been dying to read it and already paid for my copy.
This is what happens when gas prices reach record highs. I’m suprised it didn’t happen sooner. I made a choice: Gas, food or books. I chose food and gas. If prices go back up, we’re done for. But as long as people sit back and do nothing this is what we’re going to have. Everything circles around fuel.
Let the market work. As long as there are people who want to read what you write there will be a medium to sell it to them. (But buying a van with a pop-down side window to drive around and sell copies may be a great hedge…)
Jeff D: No, Cemetery Dance is publishing The Cage. They aren’t going anywhere.
I fully concur with Mr. Smith (above): my PC’s hard drive is for bundling my failed works, digital vids/music, and video games.
I don’t think anybody will give up the pleasure of having a well stocked bookshelf, and there will always be a market for readers (high or low market=in and out with the tide).
Besides, E-books confuse the living Hell out of me. I’m just backwoods enough to stay old school.
Well, go figure. We’re in the late end of the best year we’ve ever had, by far, so at least some of the small presses are doing well. We’re seeing an increasing number of books sell out prior to being published, and just released one book with a 20k copy print run, all sold without us seeking any sort of bookstore distro, which means returns are likely to be under 10%. And the projects we’re being offered are better and better. For the majors it may be a horrible time, but it’s a time of opportunity for some larger small presses, who’re willing to do multi-thousand copy print runs (like us, CD, Night Shade).
Bill
http://www.subterraneanpress.com
Bill said: “For the majors it may be a horrible time, but it’s a time of opportunity for some larger small presses, who’re willing to do multi-thousand copy print runs.”
I wholeheartedly concur, Bill. For the small presses who are healthy, solvent, and have weathered such storm before, I think this is a time of great opportunity, just like the early to mid-90′s.
E-books = abominations from hell. Period. (For me, anyway. My eyes go buggy and slough out of my sockets).
Brian, I work for Baker & Taylor-not fun watching friends getting called into the office to get canned. Also getting phone calls from other offices about who got canned. We actually lost 2 teams of sales people in two different locations. My work just quadrupled, but I am grateful to have a job. It just sucks to watch people go out before the holidays.
BTW, I work on the entertainment side, not books. I’m not sure how hard they got hit. But the entertainment side is struggling big time. Not to sound like an old fart, but the internet has really changed the business of DVD and music and it will never be the same.
Hang in there, Prey! Hopefully both our industry and the overall economy will turn around soon.
I know it all sucks right now, but I’ve always thought of a recession as a brush fire — something that burns up all of the crap and deadwood whose ashes in wake allow the newer emerging markets to take root and flourish. There are a lot of things in the publishing industry right now that ARE crap and deadwood, and I think the smaller presses WILL be able to ride this out since they ARE the ones catering to their core audiences, and, more importantly, delivering top notch books/products.