(please pass on my regards to Mr. Drake as I enjoy his work very much, and I do vote with my Dollars)
ETA: and I am an idiot who seemingly can no longer read, as the 'my friend Dave Drake' was in the quotes from Flint. Gaaa. it's true, I'm losing it.
but then again, I'm a terrible person as I can't afford to buy hardcovers and must wait the 14 months (plus or minus) for the paperback version.
(I am also somewhat OCD and once I start a series in PB it's aggravating to have the next volume appear in HC...)
So, about that. I'm convinced that part of the problem in book publishing is the cost of books and how they've stopped being 'cheap disposable' entertainment. While it's true the average book has a greater page count (seems around 400 pages is the norm) then back in the '60s..let me grab something from the stack...here we go, 'Invasion of the Robots', a short story collection edited by Roger Elwood, Paperback Library 1965, price 50 cents for 157 pages and then the '80s we've got 'Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen' by H. Beam Piper, Ace books 1984, $2.75 for 215 pages and now, 400-some, no, let's be specific, 'Dance of Time by Drake and Flint, Baen books 2007, $7.99 for 655 pages. I know, I know adjusting for inflation and all that today's books are a MUCH better value for the money, but the *practical* reality is $8 out of my pocket is alot of money today.
Combine the cost of a book with the decline in bookstores and we're in the same decline cycle that hurts the comic book biz, the anime biz, the toy biz- too few stores selling product thus raising prices which chases away customers causing stores to close making fewer outlets causing higher prices...
(I mean, seriously. Back in the late '70s there was at least a dozen local bookstores as well as two national chains, maybe more. Now there's for all intents, 2. Barnes and Nobel and a local two-store chain.)
no subject
ETA: and I am an idiot who seemingly can no longer read, as the 'my friend Dave Drake' was in the quotes from Flint. Gaaa. it's true, I'm losing it.
but then again, I'm a terrible person as I can't afford to buy hardcovers and must wait the 14 months (plus or minus) for the paperback version.
(I am also somewhat OCD and once I start a series in PB it's aggravating to have the next volume appear in HC...)
So, about that. I'm convinced that part of the problem in book publishing is the cost of books and how they've stopped being 'cheap disposable' entertainment. While it's true the average book has a greater page count (seems around 400 pages is the norm) then back in the '60s..let me grab something from the stack...here we go, 'Invasion of the Robots', a short story collection edited by Roger Elwood, Paperback Library 1965, price 50 cents for 157 pages and then the '80s we've got 'Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen' by H. Beam Piper, Ace books 1984, $2.75 for 215 pages and now, 400-some, no, let's be specific, 'Dance of Time by Drake and Flint, Baen books 2007, $7.99 for 655 pages. I know, I know adjusting for inflation and all that today's books are a MUCH better value for the money, but the *practical* reality is $8 out of my pocket is alot of money today.
Combine the cost of a book with the decline in bookstores and we're in the same decline cycle that hurts the comic book biz, the anime biz, the toy biz- too few stores selling product thus raising prices which chases away customers causing stores to close making fewer outlets causing higher prices...
(I mean, seriously. Back in the late '70s there was at least a dozen local bookstores as well as two national chains, maybe more. Now there's for all intents, 2. Barnes and Nobel and a local two-store chain.)