Amber Quill’s business model works well for them, but it’s not the same thing distribution-wise at all as what Angela James describes in her post.

Cindy

A publisher calls bookstores months before a book goes out on the trucks. Why? To determine if it will sell and how many to print. I’m sorry, but they all do it.

is an attempt to argue that all publishers demand their writers pre-sell their own books.

But –IMO — the above statement is horsehocky.

We can all agree Gail’s email was not professional (both grammatically and with the personal info she shouldn’t have included), but realize she is away from home, taking on a high pressure job on short notice, and trying to set the company back to rights–all before she even officially takes charge. She wasn’t the cause of this problem, just inherited it.

No one has mentioned the fact that she isn’t the one who got Triskelion in the situation it’s in now, so perhaps she should be given a chance to try and fix the problems someone else caused.

Personally, I hope things turn around, not only for the authors who are still there but for the readers who do shop in their bookstore. All this unrest does no one any good: reader, author and publisher alike.

PS — The person I feel sorry for here is her daughter.

To say “I didn’t get my work done because I had personal issues,” is unacceptable in most workplaces. Female executives have often had to combat the stereotype of being overly emotional; it’s disconcerting to see her play the sympathy card. To then detail precisely what those personal issues are — on a closed loop designated for business discussions — is reprehensible. Any executive, male or female, who airs their personal issues to hundreds of people should not expect to maintain their privacy. It was a business loop, not a therapy loop. And anyone who thinks a confidentiality clause will prevent someone from hitting the Forward button is woefully naive and lacks the judgment needed to run a company.

And finally, Gail’s horrendous grammar and spelling are unacceptable for someone who makes her living in publishing. She should show some pride in her profession and carefully review anything that she sends to a business loop or blog, or have someone review it for her. Her command of the English language (or lack thereof) does not inspire confidence in her abilities or her company, and that is the real issue here: can writers trust Triskelion?

To say “I didn’t get my work done because I had personal issues,” is unacceptable in most workplaces. Female executives have often had to combat the stereotype of being overly emotional; it’s disconcerting to see her play the sympathy card. To then detail precisely what those personal issues are — on a closed loop designated for business discussions — is reprehensible. No executive, male or female, who airs their personal issues to hundreds of people should expect to maintain their dignity. It was a business loop, not a therapy loop. And anyone who thinks a confidentiality clause will prevent someone from hitting the Forward button is woefully naive and lacks the judgment needed to run a company.

And finally, her horrendous grammar and spelling are unacceptable for someone who makes her living in publishing. Show some pride in your profession and carefully review anything that you send to a business loop or blog, or have someone review it for you. Her command of the English language (or lack thereof) does not inspire confidence in her abilities or her company, and that is the real issue here: can writers trust Triskelion?

Hmm, just so I’m clear…is it ok to say Heebie-Jeebies or not? I had no idea it started with Jews, but now that I’ve been informed am I SOL? Because, like Jane, I use the expression often.

Actually the origin of the term seems to be from a song and a Billy de Beck cartoon from the 20s and neither is related — as far as I know anyway — to Jewishness or Jews. It’s one of those developmental things, and while many people still use the term with neutrality (I used to use it a lot), it also has come to be used as a slur directed at Jews, I’m assuming because of the similarity of the word to both Hebrew (or the derogatory Hebe) and Jew (the Jeeb part). I personally don’t care if people use it or not, and I don’t interpret most uses of it as anti-Jewish in any way. But *I* don’t use it anymore, because a great deal of my professional life is spent on issues related to Jewish-Muslim strife. So for me it’s not really a great thing. For others — I don’t think it’s *inherently* a slur, so that’s an individual call to make. In fact, Steve Beeber wrote a book, called “The Heebie-Jeebies of CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk Rock” that I really want to read.

Not good. Here’s a report about them selling their UK stores and about bookstore chain Waterstones, which is also in a bad way:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2040923,00.html

Bookstores are suffering. In the US, the collapse of major distributors is an indicator that the market is down, but since the distributors are also responsible for newspapers and and magazines they are also a factor.
Book sales are down, and probably in long-term decline as the market ages.

Borders in particular has been returning far more books than usual to publishers, putting them under pressure to maximise profitability and minimise returns. So that probably means less choice for the consumer (us – this time I’m posting as a concerned reader).

Check the financial pages – it’s all there, if you know where to look and how to analyse the results. Last year was bad for all bookstore groups, the only winners being the bulk outlets like Wal-Mart, and this year looks to be worse. Very soon, we’ll see the “support your local bookstore” bumper stickers coming out.