Re: Fiddling with Bookstore Displays

Okay, last go-round. really.

On Thu, 29 Jun 2006 15:20:31 -0700, David Friedman
<ddfr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <0ji8a2t0dtptku8n6ar1ibq179fdlm3ddr@xxxxxxx>,
Alma Hromic Deckert <anghara@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


A good deal of the heat in these exchanges seems to come from one side
trying to generalize principles and the other trying to compare costs.
From the standpoint of principles, it is closer--because in my cases,
but not yours, someone is deliberately rearranging things in order to
achieve his purposes.

Newsflash - libraries and bookstores have only one common point - they
both involve books. HOWEVER - there is only one, possibly two or three
depending on the popularity of the volume, copy or copies of a book in
a given library. There is no such thing as a "bestseller table",
although some libraries have taken to putting the latest and hottest
hardcovers on a special shelf where they can be taken out for a
premium extra fee and kept out for a shorter time, as it were.

Which is what I described as "a bestseller table or equivalent."

However, and this is a big however, this is usually a table or a shelf
which is separate from the main library proper (from which you can
take out any book with just a card and don't have to pay an extra four
bucks or whatever it is these days for the privilege). Moving your
book from the stacks to this table is the general equivalent of taking
your book from the shelf in the store and placing it on the bestseller
plinth at the front fo the store. It would not belong there,, and that
would be painfully obvious. WHich is not what anyone here was saying
about facing out books on the shelves without removing same from their
position. Why is this simple comparison so utterly difficult for you
to accept?

But
the point is that the author gets nothing FURTHER out of that
arrangement - ONE copy, or in the case of the latest hottest
hardcovers maybe FOUR copies, of the book is already in the library.

The author gets more people reading his book, which many authors
consider a good thing.

It is, indeed. There are four copies of "Jin shei" in the local
library. They are mostly always out on loan. This gives me the warm
fuzzies. But I would not march into the library and demand that they
put the book on a pedestal with a celestial light playing upon it
because they have seen it constantly going out the door over the last
two years or so. The possible benefit to me might be that someone,
having taken the book out of the library, liked it so much that they
went out and bought their own copy - and in that particular instance
it was the availability of the book in the library which acted as the
equivalent of facing the book out on bookstore shelves - it was a
sample, it was a come-hither, it was an enticement-to-own. And yes, I
love the idea that people are constantly and consistently taking the
book out. I've had one person email me saying that they read the book
in their library first and then bought four copies for presents on the
occasion of that year's Christmas. Being read is a GREAT thing. What
was your point, again?

There is very little reason for the other patrons to push heavy
borrowing of that book (it might, if it's heavy enough, result in
perhaps one other copy being bought by the branch to alleviate wear
and tear). It does NOT put any money into the author's pockets - other
than, in some countries, programs where a royalty-type arrangement is
in place depending on the number of times the book is borrowed in a
given year or so. In other words, it's a non-analogy once again.

Only if you insist that money is the only thing that matters. Since I
don't see money as any more important than other things humans care
about, I regard that as a very odd attitude.

<blink>

We were talking of bookselling, were we not?...

My book - and yours, for that matter - was PUBLISHED. Its publication
only matters in the long run if the published book finds READERS. The
money is immaterial when compared to the issue that your books, face
out on the shelves, attract READERS. The money's the cherry on top,
not the issue - how many people do you even know, for the love of god,
who EVER earn out their advances in any significant way? But what
copies get sold count towards the NEXT contract, the NEXT book. You
may be perfectly happy with just having written your one, and are
ready to quit now - *but I am not*. I have lots more books to write.
And if turning a single book face-out in a single bookstore gets me a
single extra reader - who may then tell other potential readers about
me - that makes a difference. Forget the money. It makes a DIFFERENCE.

Disapproved-of books being misshelved... will get FOUND when other
books are being restored to their place by librarians reshelving
returned volumes, and will be returned to their own proper place.
Doing this is part of the librarian's job - re-shelving returned stock
is done on a regular basis.

Stealing library books is another can of worms altogether and I think
that even you will agree that it has no bearing on the current
discussion.

That depends. How about stealing books that you observe have not been
taken out for years? That can be defended along the same lines that
Patricia was using for defending the practice of ordering books you
don't intend to buy--by claiming that it doesn't really hurt anybody.

Now you're shifting the goalposts again.

I'm really done. Anyone who wants to continue the discussion can leave
a comment on the blog.

A.
.

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