Business Books Wholesale

A very enjoyable,well written read. As with most things the reader will be the one who makes the decision on how the book business will go,not the authors, publishers or the booksellers.This has happened in most fields and the industry stalwarts have,with the best of intentions,tried to control the changes,or at least tried to keep up in their own way.However; the “tried,true and knowledgeable” have usually been swept aside by forces “outside” the industry.This has happened with all forms of marketing as evidenced by “box stores” ,restaurant chains,the cars we drive,the clothes we drive,the music we listen to,etc. The book industry is like any other where the “establishment knows what’s best”and acts like the person whose preference for lunch is cavier,blue cheese and a glass of wine;opens a restaurant and offers it to his clients,gets very little business,seethes,looks on his potential customers as lowbrows when they disagree with his choice;and goes broke.In the meantime another decides to cater to his customers and offers soup,sandwich and “free” coffee and prospers.The diner decides! Like it or not it was the voters who put Schwarzenegger in power in California yesterday;not the political establishment, regardless of stripe.
Socialistic type control by the establishment with grants,in-house editions,best seller lists,establishment, as opposed to reader,awards,etc.remind me of the days when the franchise owners tried to use black-outs to force fans to their games.The fans will decide if they want to go to the stadium,what team they want to watch and how much they want to pay; the same with readers.Epstein seems like a good person and wants to do the right thing;he is part of the establishment and this is not going to be where the changes will originate;they will come from outside.Remember it was not from the large communication companies like A T & T that gave us the internet.
The restricted world of academics,authors,reviews and books he mentions is fine for the establishment but how come he doesn’t seem to recognize Steinbeck,Hemmingway,McMurtry,Twain,Spillae,Westerns,Mitchener,Doonesbury,Romances,Sci-Fi,Mysteries,Biographies etc.or such novels as Uncle Tom’s Cabin or Gone With the Wind? Are these not books in the mind of the writer? Is it only names like Proust,Camus,Cerf,Dupee,Nabakov etc.that are worthy of thinking as books? How many have read Gone With the Wind versus To the Finland Station ?
As to the local,knowledgeable Booksellers…one day I was in an old established,prestige,well known bookstore in Toronto by the name of Britnell’s looking to see what they had in books on mathematical puzzles and recreations.I asked if they had a section on Games and Puzzles. I was smugly told to try a “toy store”.Like TARA, they are now Gone With the Wind; and by the way the large chain stores always have such a section.
I have a personal library of about 6,000 titles,read between 120 and 150 books a year and have read very few of the the books reviews or authors mentioned in the book. Is it the attitude that if I dont read what the establishment thinks is important or good then I don’t matter? If they believe this,they do so at their peril;the reader will decide.
Rating: 5 / 5

This book is by Jason Epstein who also did a series of lectures on this topic (this is from the introduction). It is part autobiography, part history of publishing, part lament, and part prediction. At times, it provides a romantic view of editors and what they wish to accomplish. It then shows where the publishers of today are not keeping with this view.

For the most part, however, it provides an analysis of why things don’t work they way they should. Although it seems as if Epstein is crying about it, he couches this in language that shows how the whole publishing industry remains in a state of flux and that this is just another view of this flux.

The book has good flow, and it is a quick read. If you read New Grub Street and felt emboldened rather than defeated, then this is the book for you.
Rating: 4 / 5