The elder daughter is moving to campus today. I’m glad I got my walk in early because I’m not going to be fit company for man nor beast before this day is over.
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I think your comments about the time it takes you to get stuff on Apple, and other places – and how it takes time away from what actually makes you money, to wit: writing – is spot on.
And I think this is the role the publishers will ultimately re-fulfill, but it’s going to take a while – at least one internet generation (5 years, maybe?) – before they get it all sorted out and things start working that much better.
You know, though, one point in the political part, touched on perhaps the major difference between the way many people view the social safety net role of the US Government. You think that the majority of the aid goes to people who really need it, while many, if not most, disagree.
Personally, I think we’re trapped in a local minimum of the economic/political plane, and we need something to push us up and over into the region where a negative income tax becomes the most appropriate economic model. Of course, it would help to understand what the most appropriate political model would be to go with it, because I honestly doubt pure democracy, which the US is trying to move towards, is it. We’ve dismantled so much of the representative elements that were meant to be checks on the tyranny of the majority…
Actually, I don’t really care if the majority of the aid goes to people who need it.
Having been on the receiving end of it growing up, I know that whatever assistance makes it to those who need it is worth doing. If the price is paying deadbeats or having some of it skimmed off, I’m good with that if the alternative is to stop it altogether.
I find it reprehensible that we have hungry kids going to school in the morning, day after day. They can’t learn that way. The traumatic stress that too many suffer already will echo thru society for the next three generations–at least.
The lack of affordable health care means that a lot of Americans sustain systemic damage to their bodies that results in lowered quality of life overall and shorter life spans in general.
Would I wish that the system was more supportive? Of course. Do I wish that ONLY people who need aid get it? Well, sure.
But I’m not so much behind the idea that because some people are abusing the system that we take away what little support filters down. In the richest country in the world, we have some of the saddest statistics for quality of life — and most it can be laid at the feet of ignorance.
It makes me angry.
I agree with you on the state of the republic.
And that makes me sad.
Have you looked into getting your paperbacks picked up by whatever distribution company supplies the various specialist SF bookstores ? Given that those speciality stores are targetting SF readers, surely it would worth making some effort to get your books on the shelves.
I have, David.
The thing is this. In order to get those books on the shelves in the bookstores, I have to add $5 to the retail price to allow for bookstore margins and still leave room for a buck or two profit for me. So Quarter Share – which I can sell at $11.95 through online outlets will be priced at $16.95.
If I produce two editions, one that sells online at $12 and one in stores at $17 … then nobody in their right minds will buy it from a bookstore. If I don’t then the number of paperback sales I make online will slip. Right now it’s only about 10% of all sales. If that level goes down, it becomes less attractive as a channel.
More, there’s a lot of risk involved in selling in bookstores. I have to provide return options for books that don’t sell. I have to pay for any books that come back. The costs associated with the returns can exceed the income that would have been generated had the books sold. With fewer and fewer people buying books in book stores, that’s a risky business.
And how many book sales are we talking about, really? Ten a month? I don’t know for sure but the market for trade SF is a tiny fraction of the SF market and SF is a small piece of the publishing pie. If 1000 people visit a B&N fewer than 250 are looking for SF. Of those, maybe only 25 would be interested in trade paper. Of that group, they need to be willing to shell out $17 for a book where nothing happens.
This is a risky proposition compared to the relatively solid online presence that lets me sell thousands of paperbacks at a very reasonable price using only online venues.