The Decision Makers

By now I’m sure you have all heard about the book price wars. I decided to leave it alone. These mass merchandisers are gaining more than enough publicity and I have no desire to help them out.

However, after a customer recently asked why she couldn’t purchase a book online and then bring it in to be signed by the author, I felt the need to speak up. I refuse to mention the names of the retailers in question, you know who they are. I refuse to mention the price they are offering; those of you who drive thirty minutes to save a nickel or pay $3.99 shipping to save a dollar have already tracked down what you believe to be the best deal.

Whatever I say you may say to yourself, “she is just saying that so she can stay in business”. Why would you believe me? So, don’t listen to me.

How about John Grisham's literary agent, David Gernert: “If readers come to believe that the value of a new book is $10, publishing as we know it is over..I think we underestimate the effect to which extremely discounted bestsellers take the consumer's attention away from emerging writers.”

Or how about Stephen King: “It’s time to give the smaller bookstores a little breathing room.”

David Young, chief executive of Hachette Book Group, publisher of James Patterson's I, Alex Cross, said that he would like the U.S. to follow France's prohibition of selling books for less than the cover price. "I do think this massive devaluation of the industry's crown jewels could very quickly be extremely harmful...And I would not be alone in thinking that."


Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson said the price wars "will prove damaging to publishers, authors, booksellers, mass retailers, and ultimately consumers." Because these online retailers are “systematically conditioning consumers to expect these lower prices,” Although consumers may appreciate lower prices in the short run, "they are not good in the long run if authors and publishers are no longer willing to assume the risk of creating and producing the kind of quality and selection consumers currently enjoy."

The American Booksellers Association sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice requesting that it investigate practices by the retailers in question that it believes constitute illegal predatory pricing that is damaging to the book industry and harmful to consumers. “If left unchecked, these predatory pricing policies will devastate not only the book industry, but our collective ability to maintain a society where the widest range of ideas are always made available to the public, and will allow the few remaining mega booksellers to raise prices to consumers unchecked.”

Bill Petrocelli, co-owner of Book Passage in San Francisco and Corte Madera, California explains, “Predatory pricing is a means of driving other booksellers out of business. When this happens, the choice of books is one of the first things to suffer. Some readers think that if their favorite store closes they can always buy the book they want somewhere else. But that's a dangerous delusion -- the books they want may not be there at all. In fact, these types of disruptions in how books are sold or distributed have a profound effect on what publishers decide to publish in the first place.”

Now it’s time for you to make a decision. What is best for you, your reading habits, and your community? Isn’t it bad enough that these online retailers divert sales from your local businesses and wipe out the sales tax your community so desperately needs? Do you really want them deciding what you can and can not read in the future?

The List

I need to make a list. There are numerous books and movies about people making lists of things they need to accomplish before they die from the Bucket List to 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. The book I am currently reading, Where the River Ends includes a husband trying to help his wife complete her list before it’s too late.

I am a list person. I make lists for everything – things I need to do, bills I need to pay, books I want to read and books I’ve read . I do not, however, have a Bucket List or a list of places to see or things to do. I suppose at one time I did, although it has never been put down on paper.

Get married – check
Have kids – check, check, check
Live on the water – check
Jet Ski from Oconto to Door County – check
Open a bookstore – check
Have a cup of coffee with Stephen King , Dean Koontz, James Patterson and Nicholas Sparks – the emails are sent so I expect this to occur any day now.

I have been racking my brain to come up with four more things to add to my list, but it is a struggle. I’m one of those fortunate people who can’t think of anything I want (other than maybe a second pair of pants which I can actually get buttoned) or anything I want to do. I’m running out of time, though. I have to come up with four great ideas and they need to be impossible to achieve. After all, if this is a list of things to accomplish before I die, do I really want to finish them anytime soon?
What about you?

Do you have a list?

How many things on it have you accomplished?

Are you willing to share?

Flordia Keys - Dream Home or Nightmare?

I received some discouraging news this week. Another local business has shut down after being open less than a year. Maybe what retail businesses need to survive in this market is a gimmick. Take this story about a neighborhood convenience store in Marinette, WI. You can’t buy advertising like that!

I don’t have a shoplifting seagull, just great books and there are plenty of those!

Duma Key was my latest escape from the reality of a harsh Wisconsin winter. Now when I think of Stephen King , I think horror and sleepless nights. Imagine my surprise to discover his latest novel is actually a memoir – not that of the masterful storyteller, but of a simple Minnesota construction worker who is, shall we say, a little down on his luck. Okay, maybe it’s not a true story, but I feel so connected to the characters, they must exist somewhere. Edgar Freemantle, or “Eddie” as I now think of him, lost his right arm in a construction accident and his marriage ends. Instead of giving up on life as he originally intended, he takes his psychologist’s advice of a “geographic cure” and rents a house on Duma Key off the Florida Coast. As the future winner of the Dream Home Giveaway, which so happens to be located at The Shore at Islamorada in the Florida Keys, this setting appealed to me immensely.

Eventually Eddie begins his movement out of a life of solitude and meets his neighbor. Wireman has had struggles of his own and his story absolutely breaks my heart. My eyes well up just thinking about what that poor man has been through. I still have to sleep with the lights on and I’m no longer sure about moving to the Florida Keys, but there is more to this story than just horror.

Sleep, Sex, Fight or...

Last night I read a great blurb in the Green Bay Press – Gazette about how Americans are spending their time thanks to the writer’s strike. For the life of me, I cannot find the article now, but I remember the top five:

1. Sleeping
2. Cleaning the house
3. Sex
4. Fighting with spouse
5. Fighting with children

I understand 1 and 3 completely. 2 wouldn’t even cross my mind. 4 and 5 haven’t been an issue – YET.

My number one option is not listed, though. With the temperatures still below zero, my first choice would be to curl up in bed with a good book. Currently that choice is Stephen King’s Duma Key . I won’t fill you in on any details until I’ve finished; however, I will tell you that I am still able to sleep at night.

How about you? How have you been surviving without Desperate Housewives or CSI?