Movement, part II

[coalescent]

I still can't find the Norman Spinrad column on the Asimov's website...but I did find this, on the Locus website, which says many of the same things. There's also Charlie Stross' response, and Gabe Chouinard's response to the response.

Comments

[snowking.livejournal.com]

Is it me or does Chouinard's response boil down to 'stupid consumers! Why don't they know anything'. Because that means the fault is with the distributors and their marketing. Consumers are stupid as a rule. They don't go and hunt for things, they just get whatever the media flags as good. Complaining about this seems rather... canute-like.

[greengolux.livejournal.com]

Is it me or does Chouinard's response boil down to 'stupid consumers! Why don't they know anything'. Because that means the fault is with the distributors and their marketing.

I agree. I think it might be useful for some of those 'stupid' or 'lazy' consumers if book marketers did give them more information about the products they sell, and the genre as a whole. Faced with a shop full of books it's sometimes difficult to know where to start, and a few recommendations or pointers can be helpful.

One of the bookshops near me has an outstanding science fiction and fantasy department that produces its own free magazine reviewing recently published works. It's staffed by real fans of SF literature who know their stuff, and stocks many American imports of interesting, important or new SF that isn't normally available in the UK. It also happens to be the most popular and successful bookshop around, so a certain number of readers obviously appreciate and respond to these efforts. I know I do.