Our Gift To The Author's Guild: An Ad For Brick & Mortar Book Stores
from the community-service dept
Not long ago, Tim Cushing wrote about Author's Guild president Scott Turow's curious assertion that brick-and-mortar book stores are the future of the industry. I didn't think that sounded very likely, but I like a good book store as much as the next person-over-20, so I thought I'd join forces with Tim to give Turow some help in his campaign. We put our heads together and produced this period-appropriate advertisement, for Turow and anyone else to use in advancing the cause of brick-and-mortar. Enjoy!
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Filed Under: antitrust, authors, brick and mortar, ebooks, price fixing, scott turow, whimsy
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Re: Scribe
;-P
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Re: Re: Scribe
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Yet, strangely appropriate...
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lmao
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The International Society of Curmudgeons applauds you both
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The last time I ever went there, the young lady behind the register would not relent. I finally had to hold up my hand and say, "I said no thank you!" She slammed my books on the counter and turned her back on me.
I wrote a letter to the company. I got a "non-apology" back, and a $5 coupon which I promptly sent back. I never went there again.
They are out of business now, and I was not sad to see them go.
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Yeah, I am not much of a pushy sales person.
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Me too, though for me it was extended warranties for crap that would cost more to insure than to go out and buy again.
Pushing EB memberships were as much free money for EB as pushing extended warranties were for the Good Guys/Best Buy/Whatever...
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Either way, there was no "bonus" involved. If you don't push enough cards you don't get a raise and you could get fired. I knew several people who worked at both chains. Considering that one of the best raises there is $0.25 per hour, I'm surprised anyone would push that hard for it, but if you are making around $18,000 per year another $500 can be a big deal.
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I remember one day at Borders, I was buying books for my daughter and me. I was asked by three different people if I wanted the card. The last people was a manager that happened to walk by while I was paying. She said, "sir, since you are buying more than $100 worth of books, you can have our card for free." The clerk handling my purchase turned to her and said very snottily, "he doesn't want it!"
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Funny! But are e-books democratizing?
But I question the implication that paper books are snobbish and e-books democratizing.
E-book readership is a private club with a fairly high entry fee -- very much like the other forms of middle-class snobbery that you're trying to lampoon here.
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Re: Funny! But are e-books democratizing?
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Re: Re: Funny! But are e-books democratizing?
And there is a bit of a barrier on those devices now. Until prices for those devices come way down, it may put off folks who read, say, five $10 paperback books a year, as opposed to spending a couple hundred bucks for a reader and THEN buying the books....
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Re: Re: Re: Funny! But are e-books democratizing?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Funny! But are e-books democratizing?
Have you ever been to a public library?
You don't have to pay anything and for the most part there are plenty of computers for you to access the internet.
Plus, you can rent one down at the local UPS Store for a few bucks.
I don't have the numbers, but I have been to a public library recently and computers are far more simple and universal than you might tend to believe.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Funny! But are e-books democratizing?
No. I only use the Internet from my ivory tower, above the unwashed masses, while wearing a monocle.
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Re: Re: Re: Funny! But are e-books democratizing?
It'll put off more than that. Below a certain income level, it's not practical to make that kind of "profit & loss" decision (i.e. "I'll spend $100 to save $10/month -- in ten months, I'll be ahead"). For many people, $200-$300 expenses create "cash flow" crises. People will make room for necessities, of course, but for an e-book reader? No. Not for a lot of people -- that's a luxury expense.
Poor people are still generally going to have to borrow printed books from the library.
And even if you can afford a computer, a lot of people will decide to just have one general purpose machine -- and reading e-books on that is a lot less satisfying.
As for the library with plenty of computers available to use? As with public schools, the resources of public libraries reflect the wealth of their communities -- the one with all the computers are the ones in the neighborhoods where no one needs them. Meanwhile, across the tracks, they can't afford to buy them for the library either.
(That's not a new problem, that's a problem with ordinary books, too, but access to readers is tricky too. Computer time may be limited. Loaning readers is risky because there's a high temptation to steal them, etc).
I'm not trying to dis e-readers or e-books. I know people who have them and love them. They clearly serve a significant market very well. Just not everybody, and not everybody that printed books serve.
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Re: Re: Funny! But are e-books democratizing?
A cellphone in third world countries is considered a life saving device ... books, well, it depends on what they are about.
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Re: Funny! But are e-books democratizing?
Even poor people have poor computers these days -- gasp, just like they have telephones.
Ebooks can be read on the family computer.
If you don't have a computer or even a home, the public library offers free computer use where you can read those dreaded ebooks.
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Re: Funny! But are e-books democratizing?
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=AEBK01FS-R
can even find them cheaper if you really look around....
its not the best ebook reader out there but its far from the worst, and its the price of 4 new paperbacks....
just a point, you dont need a nook or kindle, there are MANY other ebook readers out there some are very very cheap others cost way to much....
I would buy an ebook reader over paperbacks for one main reason, no worry about the book falling apart or getting damaged.
I also dont get ebooks from amazon because their drm is harder to strip then BN and sites that just dont use drm at all :) (amazon has books that work with the linked player tho, just that i prefer to be able to remove the drm or have none to start with...not a fan of being told what i can and cant do with stuff I pay for.)
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Re: Re: Funny! But are e-books democratizing?
Actually, now that is pretty affordable -- I might have to re-evaluate. :-)
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Love E books
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Re: Love E books
This doesn't mean I do it at clubs where the music is pounding, but I can ignore normal conversation. Same as you'd find at a Starbucks or similar.
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While I do like how e-books have helped bring less well known authors intot he light as well as helping peple without a local store still read....I dunno, I STILL enjoy a physical book and an electronic one.
Maybe its just the comforting sense of solidity a real book has or the sense of pride I get at a shelf full of Anne McCathy or Terry Pratchett...plus reading from a screen tends to strain my eyes while books don't.
All in all, while I do love e-books, I hope brick and mortar shops DO hang around so on occasion I cna buy a hardback copy from my favourite authors. The cover art on those is really fantastic, especially a Discworld book.
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The thing is, it's totally cool for people to enjoy books and book stores - I do myself. And I too hope that our niche is big enough to sustain a small but steady ongoing industry of physical stores - hopefully moving away from sterile big box stores, and towards a handful of charming independent stores that are just enough to meet our demands.
But, beyond that, the future is not going to shape itself to our nostalgia. Scott Turow's notion that traditional stores are the future of the business is, in a world, silly.
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just a suggestion, I find I have an easier time reading eink or b/w lcd in lighted area's and color lcd in the dark.
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As the rise of the Twilight books proves, this is obviously true.
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Many of us consider this a 'perk' of online shopping.
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> with other shoppers, running into your neighbor and
> actually interacting with a real life human being
If I find something particularly interesting, I can interact with my neighbor even more quickly than running. I just send an instant message -- from my ebook reading device.
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Just saying....
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Also, the main products I order? Books. Physical, paperback or hardcover books. I don't get e-books because I don't own an e-reader and I'd rather have a physical copy in my bookshelf.
But all in all, both online and physical books can both co-exist. I would just prefer to order my physical copies online than in-person where it's not always guaranteed to be in stock.
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I do love small book stores, like the one in the town I live in where the owner actually knows something about the books she sells and has a wonderful selection of good used books.
My option is up the road in the "big" city of Nanaimo where I get the doubtful joys of shopping in Chapters. The kids on the floor have no idea what they're selling, where it might be found or even appear interested in serving customers instead of gathering together to have a chat. Oh yes, and there's the ever present loyalty card. I do get a discount but still, these things are weighing down my damned wallet. The other customers, for the most part, seem to think they're in the aisles of a supermarket and aren't into interacting with any life form let alone other shoppers unless, of course, you run into them on the way into the ever present Starbucks. Even then it's only to exchange the opinion that Starbucks coffee is too expensive and that ditch water makes for better coffee.
If my alternative is on line shopping and becoming an anti-social hermit or vampire type then I'm all for it. As for seeing the sun for months on end you've obviously never spent a winter in this part of the world, have you?
I see my neighbours and interact with them daily and other folks round town too as well as in my church and in other activities I'm deeply involved in.
Of course, vampires have a decent involvement with humans in the night and a far better sex life than either of us have enjoyed anywhere but in our imaginations so if there's a way to become one it does sound tempting.
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Booksellers move into the 20th century already
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Forgot one thing...
"Now get off our collective lawns"
as a footnote.
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At the same time, I like to buy hardbacks from my favorite authors, or the latest paperback if they don't sell hardbacks (Gail Carriger's books, e.g.). I have three bookshelves right now, and I'm honestly worried I'll need to get more.
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your doing it wrong.
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"I like a good book store as much as the next person-over-20, so I thought I'd join forces with Tim to give Turow some help in his campaign."
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You do? In that case, why do you use your ad copy to mock ---in false and ridiculous ways ---what you portray as attributes of the brick-and-mortar bookstore and, by extension, the bound-and-printed-on-paper book--or, in other words, "books" as opposed to what is stupidly and wrongly referred to as being their equivalent, "e-books" ?
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