And the book biz changes…step by step. Ultimately the folding of bricks and mortar mega-stores is, imho, likely to continue, ultimately leaving the indies who deal in used and new and used; the online sellers who ship; and the e-books. And the pirates.
What this also does is mean 30% of Borders’ buying is now lost to publishers, who are hurting with every such event, and ultimately to writers, who are hurting right along with them; and the bankruptcy means whatever Borders owes publishers and other vendors across the board won’t get paid. Neither will the writers, of course.
Interesting times, my friends. I got a check the other day that is only 10% of what that check used to be. A 90% pay cut is pretty steep, let us tell you.
And now we’ve got a myth floating the internet that out of print means public domain. The pirates are flourishing on that supposition. They’re encouraging readers to scan and offer up out of print favorites…when almost all backlist is out of print, because of the publishing crisis.
How nice!
I talked with Robert Asprin at a con once. He had been making enough money at the time to sit home and do nothing but write. But he went back to work after a while simply because he needed the structure to force himself to write.