it just keeps getting worse

From the NY Times Breaking News Alert:

Breaking News 4:08 PM ET: Dow Closes Down More Than 500 Points

Talk about publishing into a recession...jeez.

--Ladytron

oh noes...one more reason PW sucks

Oh, PW. First, you refuse to tell us the review status of the all the books we send. Then, you write obnoxious blogs about how publicists could do their jobs better. And now, you're cutting the payment for your reviewers - the only people at your magazine who actually matter:

Dear Reviewer,

We are under constraints to reduce our expenses and must reduce the fee we pay to reviewers. Any reviews assigned after June 15 will be billed at $25 per review. However, you will be credited as a contributor in issues where your reviews appear. Please know that we value the work you do for us. Your astute reading and writing are what make our magazine so valuable in the industry and we regret this necessary action. All of us here are also experiencing change but we expect that we will continue to be the gold standard in book reviewing.

Sigh. I think we can safely expect less starred reviews and more mean ones. 'Cause if someone was only paying me 25 bucks to read an entire book and write something about it, well, I would be even more bitter than I usually am.

--Ladytron

Number Crunching...

Remember last week when I was bitching about the number of books we (by which I mean publishers) continue to produce each year? Well, in next Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, Rachel Donadio tackles the issue (she obvi reads Slunch for her story ideas). Apparently, I was wrong about 300,000 books being published each year. That was in 2006. Last year? 400,000. Yeah, that’s right. 400,000. And while I was talking in relation to book coverage, Rachel tackles an even more disturbing trend – 53% of Americans surveyed last year hadn’t read a single book.

Now, think about this. If the population of the United States in July 2007 was 301,139,947 (according to Google), than only about 140 million something of those people were reading. Which means, we’re publishing 1 book for every 350 people or so – I think. I haven’t taken math since high school, but I’m pretty sure that’s right.

So, that doesn’t sound too bad, until you really start thinking about it. I mean, if you were working on a book, and it only sold 350 copies, I think you’d pretty much consider that a flop. And, yes, I know that many people who read will obviously pick up more than one book a year, but you also have to counter that many of these people are reading the SAME book, i.e. The Da Vinci Code, A New Earth, Eat, Pray, Love, or anything by Michael Connelly/James Patterson/David Baldacci, which all have millions of copies in print. Not to mention the fact that people aren’t confined to reading books published that year – we still have the classics and consistent backlist sellers to contend with. Which explains why, in 2006, 70% of books published ended up in remainder bins and only 1% hit the list.

I could go on, but I’m still on my first (iced – yay summer!) coffee and my head might explode. So, to summarize, the number of books we publish – UP. The number of readers – DOWN. Oh, also, there’s a recession, and despite the theory that books are recession proof, it’s still going to hurt, especially with the shitty dollar. Maybe we should all take a closer look at Jonathan Karp’s business plan before we destroy ourselves and the business.

—Ladytron

We live in a third world country...

So I was reading PW this morning, and there was mention of the debate over in London about what currency to deal in – the pound, the euro, or the dollar. Since the dollar is worth shit nowadays, agents were thinking pound and euro equals bigger royalties. Sweet. On the other hand, deals in dollars mean everything is super cheap for foreign publishers! Oh, kids. I’m depressed. I mean, a few months ago, it was all, ha, Canadians are throwing books at each other, and now…well, I’ve heard rumors that high end stores throughout NYC are starting to accept euros. How long until we’re bartering our free books for a loaf of bread? Happy Monday.

—Ladytron

Bad News, Good News

Bad News: The Canadian Dollar is at an all time high against the dollar, basically 1 for 1. So much for a cheap vacation in the world next door, eh?

Good News: Looks like we can finally get rid of those pesky dual prices on jacket flaps.

Maybe its time to publish more books in Spanish, or God forbid, French Canadian.

-Slunchie