How to handle extortionate twits

[pecunium]

Teresa Nielsen Hayden has been in the publishing end of the book business for I don't know how long.

In the course of that she's seen a lot of the bickering which goes on between bookstores and publishers. My family has owned a used bookstore for almost 25 years. In that span of time I've seen (at a remove, being a used bookstore) some of that. I do know that customers want variety.

Which is why her post on an Aussie chain cutting off its nose, to spite its face is a treat to read.

As someone who has been selling books for going on 27 years (we sold books before we had a store), and someone who buys books, this sort of arrogance; we are a big chain, and can dictate to you, our supplier, what you will charge us for what we wish to buy, is horrible.

Follow the links, read the comments, and raise a glass to Michael Rakusin, who knew just what to do about this sort of thing... drag it into the light, and show it to the world for what it is.

Comments

[michael-b-lee.livejournal.com]

Which is why her post on an Aussie chain cutting off its nose, to spite its face is a treat to read.

My wife works for one of the largest book distributors in the US. You'd be amazed and/or dismayed at how often this sort of thing happens.

[anna-en-route.livejournal.com]

HA!

Couldn't happen to a nastier book store, sort of like a smaller wannabe Borders.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Egad. As someone mentioned on the ML thread, it almost makes me want to fly to Australia for the specific purpose of going into an A&R and telling them why I won't spend a dime there. And then going to the other bookseller down the street and buying a bunch of books.

Of course, I want to go to Australia/NZ for a lot of other reasons too, and I still can't afford it. But man, would that be icing on the cake!

[cjmr.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, this is the other article you linked to that I got distracted by, while I was trying to decide where to leave an introductory comment...