Hello! Yes, I know I said I wasn’t going to blog but last night when I *finally* got into bed – after working on the series all night! – my mind kept ticking and I’m thinking there are some things I should tell you.
Just so everyone is on the same page, the five post series is starting Monday, and this was, of course, inspired by this post on online book buying versus in shops (specifically, Sally Rippin!).
Okay, so, since I’ve been working on it flat out all yesterday until past midnight (with the exception of one hour where my landlord came over… *rolls eyes*) a lot has changed and a lot has happened.
Here’s a brief run-down of what you should know before the series starts:
- There is no particular order for the series. Basically, I’m doing a ‘first in best dressed’ situation – so which ever of the five groups has the most people respond by Monday will be posted first.
- You should keep in mind that the opinions expressed are that of the individual and not any company they happen to work for.
- Some people may have opinions you don’t like, and that’s fine – but as the new comment policy says, don’t be a jerk about it.
- These posts are going to be long, people – I’m talking over 2,000 words. At the shortest one it’s about 1,000 at the moment (so that’s saying no-one else replies to my emails, which won’t happen!) but most are about 2,500. I’ve tried to cut them down and I’ve tried to not double up on comments (so if two people essentially say the same thing I’ll just write a sentence that X and Y agree on Z) but everyone has had such a wide, varied opinions! Which is fantastic.
- I’ve done my level best to get a wide selection of opinions but obviously some sub-groups won’t be represented – I apologised in advance!
- I really must thank everyone who’s replied to my emails and the people who’ve emailed offering opinions.
- And speaking of the interviewees, at the end of each post will be a two-line biography complete with any relevant links (publishing houses, bookshops, author websites etc).
- I’ve tried to use quotes from everyone that has offered them, even if it’s only been a sentence.
- I felt like a sneaky paparazzi when one company reply to my questions with “We have no comment on this issue.”
Some quick stats if you’re interested (as it stands, at three pm on Saturday afternoon):
Authors -
Interviews collected: 5
Interviews that have confirmed will get back to me: 2
Authors not heard from yet: 3
Librarians -
Interviews collected: 4
Interviews that have confirmed will get back to me: 1
Librarians not heard from yet: 0
Consumers -
Interviews collected: 6
Interviews that have confirmed will get back to me: 2
Consumers not heard from yet: 0
Publishers -
Interviews collected: 1
Interviews that have confirmed will get back to me: 3
Publishers not heard from yet: 3
Publishers that declined to comment: 1
Booksellers -
Interviews collected: 5
Interviews that have confirmed will get back to me: 1
Booksellers not heard from yet: 1
So as you can see, it’s looking that Publishers will be on Friday (to give them time to respond) and most likely Consumers or Librarians on Monday.
If anyone cares, the spilt of people I’ve asked to be interviewed versus people who have come to me with opinions is 29/9.
If you’ve got an opinion, you’ve got until Sunday early evening to email me at literary.life at hotmail.com with it to be included.
So far, this is what I’ve done:
- Wrote interview questions for each category
- Sent twenty-nine individual emails explaining the project (including links and examples) and asking for involvement
- Followed up and replied to emails
- Answered nine emails from people offering opinions (including chasing up to clarify a comment/ask for details for the biography/etc)
- Advertising the hell of it!
- Read through all the interview material (boy people really ramble! Kind of like me, really!)
- Deleted stuff that was generic or didn’t really suit
- Put all the interviews for each category together in one document and decided on some sort of structure for the posts
- Went through each interview and pulled specific quotes
- Started to write a ‘what we have learnt’ blog post to post at the end of this
- Written thirty-eight biographies
- Sourced links to various websites, Facebook and Twitter accounts to accompany biographies
- Felt awful when one person wrote a really long and lyrical response that I couldn’t use as it didn’t suit. I managed to use a few random quotes, but majority of it had to go…
What I need to do:
- Research some stats about the issue – five different times, each from the point of view of each category
- Research other information to include in the section so they’re not just the interviews – again, five times for each category
- More advertising
- Start a summary blog post of all the information presented
- Chase up the publishers to make sure they’ll reply (otherwise that section is looking very skinny indeed…)
- Send out reminder emails to people to say that if they want to be included, they need to get back to me (including people emailed wanting the questions, and then haven’t gotten back to me)
- Do a final edit before I post – to try to get the word count down/make sure I haven’t doubled up/make sure I’ve credited everyone correctly/make sure my anonymous people are anonymous and I haven’t accidentally used their names (and also not using a gender-specific ‘he’ or ‘she’)
And I’m sure there’s more that I’ve forgotten.
Who said I needed a life! Pffffft!
Also, who’s bright idea was this? :p
Anyway, so that’s my weekend!
Feel free to add to my workload by emailing your opinion 
Wow, this is pretty amazing!! You really put your heart and soul into your blog, and the literary industry – I admire your passion.
I nominated you in Bloggies in the best topical blog category.
Awww thanks Carly!:)
Megan, this is awesome. I too am a Book Depository fan, but understand how it impacts on authors and small retailers. What always confuses me is that publishers pay the author a % of the RRP of a book, so if books are discounted by the seller (ie the seller takes the loss), does this affect the % the author is paid. I've heard so many contradictory accounts of this and can't wait to hear what you've uncovered.
Thank you, Anne-Marie!
And yes we shall cover that in the series! If you have any other questions, just pop them in the comments under the specific post as I'm hoping a discussion will occue and people can answer it for you!
Anne-Marie, as far as I'm concerned, that shouldn't effect the author's pay as what the bookseller does with the book after they've purchased it from the supplier (publisher) is their own right.
They can double the price or halve it, but the bottom line is that the transaction is done with the publisher and therefore any arragement with the author/publisher is done and dusted.
This is coming from *me* however – non publisher/non author – so I will ask relevant people and let you know for sure!
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