Great News: Toni Anderson’s Venus’ Slipper will be available in print form from an Amazon.com near you. Publishing date to come! Congratulations Toni!!!
Is the novel dead? According to declining sales in new books, one might think that they are on their way out. I do know that sales in used bookstores are also down, although according to Rebecca Brandewyn’s article, on-line used book sales are up. How do I know? Because I work in one and we rely on people buying new books to keep us in business. Our profits are down and we have had to let people go because we can no longer afford to pay them. We are an institution (30 years) in the neighborhood and we have a lot of loyal customers, which has kept us going. Our customers are generally split into three sections. The first are the elderly who are on a fixed income and cannot afford books at the price they are now. The second are people looking for older books by authors that they have just “discovered”. They are the ones that usually bring us new books. The third are those who can no longer afford to just pick up a book at the bookstore by an author they are unfamiliar with. People are more apt to try a new/unknown author at a used bookstore price because of the high prices of books. Then, when they find an author they like, they go out and buy the authors books new. We no longer get the “splurge” buying books like we used to, in the era that we refer to as BK (before Katrina). So yes, prices have made people more cautious about buying new books.
Rebecca’s article also went on to talk about the new generation of readers – or non-readers as it seems to be turning out. I know that the kids who come into our store looking for books on the schools reading list ask first “How long is the book?” They have been known to pick a book out based on length rather than content. I blame the book lists. My former manager once stated that “The Mill on the Floss” nearly put her off reading forever. As Brandy pointed out, booklists need to be updated to keep kids interested. Some schools have tried this, but many parents don’t like the books chosen and have had quite a few banned. This has happened with classics too, but not to that the extent. Schools need to make alternative lists available instead of just taking books off the shelves. I’m thinking of the Harry Potter series, for example, where many schools removed them from their lists and from their libraries. By not making more “up-to-date” books available, they are, for lack of a better word, boring the kids. Very rarely does the teenager come in purposely looking for the classics – it has happened, but I wouldn’t have to change hands to count them. More often, they are looking for Cliff Notes – I hate them! (the Cliff Notes, not the kids) Kids are more techno-sophisticated now, so things have to be done to cater to that element. A company in
I’d be interested in seeing how sales of ebooks are going. That’s another form that I can see taking off. I envision a future where Barnes & Noble has sections of downloadable ebooks – disks like computer programs, or memory cards. Sales in audiobooks seem to be going up – at least by our customers and the fact that our local Borders has opened up a huge section for them. But does that necessarily mean that the printed form will eventually be gone – yes. Some day. But not in the foreseeable future. Like Bebo said, I can see a time when a printed book becomes an antique. It’s inevitable.
As far as romances going out of style – never. As long as there is romance, there will be books about it. Period. I read categories. They have changed from when I first started reading them in the 70s. Harlequin has changed – when I first began, the heroes were arrogant, cold, sometimes cruel. I couldn’t understand how the heroine could fall in love with them. Why they would allow themselves to stay in an abusive relationship. Somewhere in the 80s that changed and the Beta male made his appearance. Books started to be written with the man’s viewpoint included. No longer was the wealthy, arrogant sheik riding out of the desert and kidnapping the unknown twin sister of his bitch of a wife. Wealthy Scandinavian doctors were no longer dating their nurses or falling in love with their patients. Books started taking place in
Go to her link at the right side over there - no, not there, up a little further - comment on the contest post. 
hey, I am a new one so ... 
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