Sunday 29 May 2016

Frozen out?

Is this censorship or just a little power play?
We have been booking libraries and bookshops for the upcoming promotion tour since February, with expected success, generally achieving one appearance in each town.

But today, we find that Robinsons and QBD bookshops do not allow branches to accept even free author visits. All author visits are booked through HQ, after the book has been (my interpretation) discovered somehow, then vetted.

But wait, there is more. Then HQ approaches the Publisher who then informs the author that the above bookstore at wherever, has invited the author to appear at an event.  Who pays to get someone to an event hundreds of K's away unless they are a celebrity? My offer was free.

If one examines the minutiae of that for a minute, one can glean this very important message: "No author that is not already famous need apply to visit any of our bookshops!"
Luckily, the above retailers are now a relatively small player in book retail, and anyhow, Gulag is available at Booktopia (Australia) and Book Repository UK as paperback and I expect as an e-book at all the usuals and when Woodslane gets them out, in most retail bookshops except some who do not know what they missed. :-)

You just know my characters will get themselves into a heap of shit and this pair, Merpati and Tom McKinnon do not let us down.
Ask at your local bookstore too. It's good for me if a lot of people keep saying my name.

3 comments:

  1. Your situation is common. A great many publishers will not consider manuscripts unless the author has a reputation or recommendations from well known organizations that guarantee his writings will sell. It effectively prevents a lot of new authors and ideas from being published or having access to a broad market. I have run into the same problem here in the US.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, Donald I am sure it applies to the whole global book market, such as it is. But we who must write must write, I guess.

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  2. wow, congrats on the new book - I just found out! (got a new pc and lost all my bookmarks so have been a bit slack with the blog posts) - yeah, sounds like they only like the big celebs which is quite pathetic.

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