An article at Publishing News story reports that senior publishers (in the UK at least) are becoming concerned over the book industry dominance of supermarkets and bookstore chains. The main area of concern appears to be diversity of titles; with the prominent promotion of a select few titles squeezing out other titles.
[Link via The Alien Online Book Blog, which has something to say on the matter.]
Comments (2)
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Posted by John DeNardo at Wednesday July 06, 2005 at 8:17 AM
© 2008 SF Signal
More: Here's a reaction from an independent bookseller.
Posted by John on Saturday July 09, 2005 at 11:52 PM at 11:52 PM
Note that consumers dictate these changes (that is, those of us reading this blog) not the chain retailers, independant retailers, or the publishers. As a whole, people seem to prefer to buy their books at Wal-mart, the supermarket, or large chain retailers rather than going to a small bookseller.
On the other hand, I prefer to only shop for books online now (at least for myself - finding books for my children has been a different matter.) Amazon.com and the other online retailers give me HUGE (I'd wager nearly complete) selection and decent pricing and that has to be good for the publishers as well as the authors.
Posted by Scott on Sunday July 10, 2005 at 6:29 PM at 6:29 PM