I’m sure you guys know I rarely talk about “the business.” I think about it a lot, but I rarely manage to say the things I have on my mind before someone like John Scalzi, Jim C. Hines, Charles Stross or Laura Anne Gilman beat me to it in much classier fashion. But this time I shall boost the signal anyhow because this is important.
Although this is happening to a lot of people, let me direct you to one specific case that is very well stated: My friend Stephanie Burgess is one of many writers being adversely affected by a dispute between her publisher and a certain large book store chain. This has happened in the past and it will probably happen again in the future. Read her take on the situation at her blog. Corporate disputes like this hurt the supplier first and in this case, there’s not another market to take the product to due to the way publishing contracts are written (and this is true for some self-published and indie authors also, in some cases.) Authors don’t roll in money (not in real life, unless they happen to be J. K. Rowling) even when they make the NYT list, so having their books left in the warehouse because the “big dogs” want to scrap hurts us all and gives them the chance to hurt us more in future. Please consider supporting your local independent bookstore and authors like Stephanie. (Also, if you have middle-grade to young YA girls who like to read in your circle of friends, the Kat books are truly wonderful. I recommend them heartily.)
(This was also posted to the blog.)