Monday, December 29, 2008

Bargain Hunting for Books

This NYT article about book bargain hunters points out that no industry undermined by its greatest partisans will thrive long. It's true - gone are the days when I happily spent $1,000/year on books (and I don't think that included my law books, which were certainly expensive) and who could love books more than I do?

I alternate between thinking I left publishing at the right time and wishing I were still at Wiley where I could do my job in my sleep - and some of my colleagues surely did. It was a great place in many ways but definitely one of those companies where 10% of the people (mostly sales and editorial) did 90% of the work. And don't even try to get something done on Fridays when quite a few individuals said they were working from home. This would have been more convincing if they ever responded to email. It always annoyed me that my ability to get my job done was negatively impacted by their laziness or desire to spend time with their kids.

My friend Charlotte was interviewed on NPR on the state of the industry.

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