onyxhawke

I'm not sure I'll ever figure out the publishing industry. Leaving aside some of the arcane intricacies of how things are paid for, and the interesting paths a book may take from writer to publisher to book stores, there are all sorts of weird things going on. The latest and at least to me most perplexing are the recent decisions by two name game creators to start and discontinue their non gaming publications. Wizards of the Coast started their imprint, and not long later it went poof. Games Workshop started their imprint a bit longer ago, and has had some really entertaining series and works, and yet they've decided that despite being a money earner, It just isn't something they wish to continue. So, Solaris is up for sale.

Because of the "credit crunch" that has precipitated the whole economic slowdown around the world, If someone wants to buy them they will probably have to pay in cash or have an enormous amount of brownie points stored up with some bank. Given the number of publishers who have official, or unofficial buying freezes, this probably makes for a very short list. Either way, this likely means either a major change, or extinction of a brand that is entertaining, and well run.

Given the well documented layoffs, and reorganizations of major publishers, i can't see anyone who has an SF/F imprint taking on Solaris and doing the right thing by making it mostly or completely autonomous. It's just not enough a part of human nature for someone to make a purchase that large and then leave it alone. Either favors will be called in, or some bean counter will wish for a more profitable editorial team (read less expensive) or they will decide to move the imprint to the US or Germany, or Russia or wherever and lose people that way. On a small team that already lost a key person to Angry Robot recently, those one or two people lost could have a huge impact on the product.

Who knows, maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised and someone will buy them and take a hands off approach, or Games Workshop will decide that as good as the goose might taste the eggs are a nicer thing to have overall. Either way I wish the Solaris team, and their authors good luck wherever the land.

Sometimes the human capacity for ignoring things amazes me. Usually it just disgusts me. Statistics have shown the number of men who never get married has steadily risen over the last half century. This means there are more and more men every year with no wife, mother, girlfriend or whoever to do their shopping for them. Studies have also shown the number of that more men are staying home and raising the family while the woman in the relationship works outside the house. And yet, the grocery stores haven’t really changed too much in the last two and half decades. Nor have the people making the cleaners and the laundry soap or the fixtures responded well. Most men want a cleaner to either not smell or smell like cleaner "Evergreen Forest Glade Heavenly Aroma" dish soap doesn’t appeal to most of the male gender too much. And given that on average men are a bit taller than women, having checkout counters where there are no impulse items at that higher level seems a bit foolish. The floor space is still costing the store the same amount, and wasting three or four feet of shelf space per checkout lane doesn't make dollars or sense.

 

Something else baffling is the fact that the book matrix hasn't really changed in these stores in nearly forever. There are bright kids books, the same mix of big name writers as every other supermarket and convenience store with a liberal mix of romance novels. But, despite the demographic shifts mentioned above, and the increased number of men who go shopping with their significant female other, the number of books aimed at men, has dropped. When a decade or two back I'd at least see the occasional western, or maybe a war or car themed non fiction book. Sometimes there would be the biography of a famous athlete or president and that's about it. I find it odd that there are less and less independent book stores, and more concentration of business niches that were formerly boutique focused into the larger stores, and yet the publishing industry has been slow to respond. Wal-Mart, whatever there other faults has proven it can sell music at a solid pace and is now the largest music retailer in the country. The book store section in the two or three Wal-Mart's I occasionally visit are no larger than they were when they opened, likewise for Target, Kmart, or any of the supermarket chains.

 

The question to me becomes, do writers, and editors really care who is selling the books that much? With one of the two largest chains in the country on shaky financial footing, and the steady drop in independent book stores, doesn’t it make sense to better penetrate the non traditional markets? Even if Target never amounts to more than five percent of Pyr or Roc's sales it would be one more market to put books in front of potential buyers. It would also be one more market to leverage Barnes and Noble and Borders into distribution deals that are more favorable to the publisher and writer. Maybe the younger generations of men and women who aren't reading as much could be tempted back into the light.