Monday Monday

[altivo]

Three, count them, three shipments of books sitting on my desk to be processed. Not a few of them had release dates for tomorrow. A couple of years ago, the distributors were sending us best sellers well in advance of the release dates so we could have them ready for people to check out on the same day that the bookstores release them. In the last year, though, they've been arriving just a day or two before release and sometimes actually after it.

We got the fifth Harry Potter book two weeks ahead of the release date, for instance. I cataloged our copies and locked them in a file cabinet to keep anyone from cheating. Seriously.

I suppose they decided that too many libraries were letting the books out into the wild ahead of time, but we never did that as long as we were advised up front of the official release date.

Anyway, car is scheduled for maintenance tomorrow, and I'm just as tired as I was last night. We seem to have some sort of low grade virus here. No heavy symptoms, but sniffles and congestion, occasional cramps, and tired feelings. Wish it would run its course and go away.

Comments

[sabbath_silverclaw]

We have that same thing down here. It's more annoying than anything else. Hope you get over yours quickly. I'd offer up some of my cold-beating chili but you're a bit north of me.

[altivo]

Urgh. Well thanks, but we tried the chili solution two days ago with some of my own. Almost sleepless night resulted from the cramps and heartburn. It doesn't go any farther than that, which is good, but still, sleep is important. ;p

[avon_deer]

Your library gets books which are that new?! O.O

I remember when I lived in Goole (back in the 90s), there was a major celebration when a copy of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" was donated. LOL

[altivo]

We have a real (though shrinking) budget for books, and do purchase new titles on a regular schedule, yes. Shiny new right from the publisher. We also "rent" new books when we think they may be of limited interest. These come in at publication date and stay for six months, then go back to the rental agency.

[hrrunka]

There was a time when release dates were fairly elastic. I remember buying and reading at least a few of Terry Pratchett's novels weeks before their official release dates. The up-shot was that the novels didn't shoot straight to the top of the bestseller charts because those early sales didn't get counted. I think the hyper-hype over the later Harry Potter novels is pretty much responsible for the tightening of the grip; the publisher was so hungry for the "record sales" headlines...

[altivo]

There's a lot of stupid grandstanding going on with the release dates now. For instance, where most titles release on a Tuesday, James Patterson's books always come out on a Monday. It's as if they are hoping you'll spend your weekly budget for books on Monday and be forced to skip his competitors' releases the next day. That went on for a couple of years, and now one or two other authors' work is starting to be released on Mondays, especially if Patterson is releasing yet another title that day (he cranks out nearly a dozen a year.) I'm waiting to see how long before all the releases are on Monday and Patterson starts releasing on Sunday instead.

Personally, I've decided that virtually all of these books with restricted release dates are not worth the paper they're printed on. They've started playing the restricted date game with children's picture books and other such oddities. I promise you, the kids are not hanging around and putting their names on waiting lists so as to get the latest easy reader on the first possible day. And I very much doubt that the teachers are either, as they have more important stuff to be doing.

[hrrunka]

Aye. Good kids' picture books should have a sales lifetime measured in decades. Playing release date games with new ones is utterly stupid.

[altivo]

All good books should have sales lifetimes measured in decades. Unfortunately, back when *%^$# Reagan was president they changed the tax laws so that book inventories in warehouses were taxable year after year. It no longer is feasible to keep them around, and they get remaindered even before the awards for the year are announced. Then when an unexpected big award comes through, they have to rush to reprint.