Sunday, July 16, 2006
Nothing new under the sun

Forgive me, I have just written today's blog only to have it disappear into cyberspace. I'm working on a very slow line on an unfamiliar laptop and can't make hyperlinks work - and maybe I'll fail again. So fingers crossed as I try to remember my grumpy old man piece.

When I started in the UK publishing industry in 1971 (I think it was then but it was such a long time ago...) all books were published on Thursdays. When I asked why the answer was clear - in order to optimise the chances of a publication day review in the Times Literary Supplement - http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/.

Like many things in our industry this practice fell into disuse and books were published on any day of the week - normally to suit an author's publicity schedule or to suit a particular retailer - or most likely just when the book arrived at and was despatched from the publisher's warehouse.

In parallel the tracking of sales through retailers improved immeasurably as did the importance of best seller lists. Publishers would try to get the best position for their authors' books by publishing on the day which gave the best chance of a high entry - obviously. However that was not necessarily the best or most efficient day for retailers as a whole. A committee of leading booksellers and publishers was established to address this issue. After many hours of discussion (sometimes heated) over a period of many months the committee agreed and signed up to Mondays for all books to be published. Within a week the agreement was broken by publishers wishing to steal a march on their competitors.

How to deal with this problematic development? Reconvene the committee. The solution? All books to be published on Thursdays. I think it was the British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, who resigned because he couldn't bear the same old problems coming around time and time again.

But some things are new. This article from last week's Nature - http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060710/full/060710-8.html - about a quadriplegic man controlling some important actions through thought seems to come from science fiction but is real, truly amazing and really important.
#    |  Comments [5]  | 
7/16/2006 11:01:27 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I don`t mind what day I publish - or indeed, AM published. But you will never ever get them to agree and if they do agree, never get them not to break the agreement. It`ll have to be the usual free for all. Publiction dates matter little now anyway as retailers bung them out when they get them and reviewers take absolutely no notice as they are always at least a month behind. It`s a non-issue
SUSAN HILL
7/16/2006 11:55:53 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I guess the problem is the reward for breaking the deal is so high and the penalty so non-existant that the rational actor is almost stupid not to break the release date agreement. At least when everyone else is keeping it. When they stop keeping it the reward obviously falls off!
Eoin Purcell
7/16/2006 2:59:13 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Richard - take that nature article and add it to Second Life and there we are! Not just outside of the virtual community, but actually in it - wow. Does that scare you or excite you?
ann michael
7/16/2006 5:55:03 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I agree with Eoin, for people to keep an agreement there must be substantial penalties for breaking it. Such as refusing to supply retailers who violate a release agreement. Hard to stay in business when you have no stock to sell.
Alan Kellogg
7/18/2006 4:01:01 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Nature and Second Life scare me silly.

If the publication day is unsustainable (and Eoin's and Alan's logic is sound) then why do we bother to try? Perhaps a major retailer might let us know?
richard charkin