Paying for shelf space Re: [LINK] ABC News Critique

[Jan Whitaker]

At 05:15 PM 12/08/2007, steve jenkin wrote:
>I'd love to agree with you and express outrage at this latest  folly or
>excess of our  economic system... But Borders, Bunnings and Woolies
>would not be thriving if people didn't flock there... They are doing
>enough right for consumers and producers that we are stuck with the
>model.  Personally I hate it - the extra benefits are small and the loss
>of decades of passion, experience and knowledge is irredeemable...
>
>Lets form a resistance movement and make a difference.

Uh, I know what being verballed feels like now. :-)
Here's what I said in response to a faulty search engine at ABC, only 
as an example (one out of 7 sentences in the post):
"I wanted to find an article about the Angus and Robertson changes 
that will disadvantage small publishing houses, causing the 
publishers to PAY A&R to carry their books."

I wouldn't call that outrage, merely commenting on positions stated 
in the articles I did find elsewhere.

You gotta admit, though, that charging the publisher of this year's 
Miles Franklin winner is a bit odd. Seems like a bit of nose cutting 
in this case. And the articles that I did find in the online 
newspaper sites said that smaller houses would be disadvantaged and 
that few books from smaller groups like Indigenous writing could be 
economically offered to A&R shops because of the ultra-small margins 
they have, in fact, being most likely no margin items.

this probably belongs on unlink if the discussion about publishing in 
the print world is going to be the focus.

Cheers,
Jan

Jan Whitaker
JLWhitaker Associates, Melbourne Victoria
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
personal: http://www.janwhitaker.com/personal/
commentary: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/

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