Independents vs Chains (Or Something Else)?

I'm switching topics midstream. I had planned another blog for today but, hey, flexibility is the sign of a healthy mind.

Among the sites you'll see linked to this one is the Bookseller Chick. She had an interesting blog today, talking about Barry Eisler's recent contretemps with the son of an independent bookseller who'd recently hosted a signing for the author.

According to Eisler's blog, he did a three-author booksigning at the Midwestern bookstore. By all accounts, the event went well, and the bookseller hosted a dinner afterward for the authors and the store's employees. At the close of dinner, someone offered to give Eisler a ride to his hotel. He demurred, saying that he needed to do a stock signing at a nearby Barnes & Noble and, by the way, where is that store?

For anyone not familiar with the book business, a formal signing is usually a major event for a bookstore. They advertise the date and notify their regular customers. The authors generally spend several hours in the store: greeting customers, signing purchased books, answering questions and posing for photos.

By contrast, during a stock signing, the author slips into the store and signs a stack of books that have not as yet been sold. The writer does not interact with any customers, and the bookstore hopes that the autograph will help sell the books in question.

Back to Eisler: Apparently the bookseller's son, an attorney, took offense either because Eisler mentioned B&N in his hearing, or because Eisler was going to autograph a competitor's books. Whatever, the annoyed lawyer later sent an email to Eisler. You can actually read their entire exchange on Eisler's website because the writer chose to bring the incident public. He did remove all identifying information.

There has already been an enormous amount of chat on the Internet about this incident. Some suggest that the bookseller's son (identified as G) was having a bad day when he sent the email. Others say that Eisler was thoughtless to mention a competitor to his hosts and their staff. Many more talk about the antipathy between indie bookstores and chain stores.

Frankly, I saw it as a pissing contest gone bad. G made not-so-subtle threats to Eisler--which he shouldn't have done--and Eisler retaliated by bringing their email exchange public--which he shouldn't have done without express permission. Despite Eisler's removing the identifying information from the emails, it took me two clicks to identify the bookstore by checking his tour schedule.

G had a good point in his email when he complained about the other stores in his town ignoring the official release date for Eisler's latest book and setting it out for sale early in order to get a jump on the competition. However, that point is one that needed to be addressed with the publishers, not with the author.

Eisler had a good point when he said he was offering value to both the indie store and the chain. The indie got the benefit of his presence interacting with clients and the chain got the benefit of signed stock. His job as an author is to promote his book, and he was doing exactly what he should have done.

G was out-of-line for sending the emails. Eisler's written responses were gracious and appropriate. His posting the exchange was a take-no-prisoners act in my humble (and unrequested) opinion.

If you want to read more, go to Bookseller Chick at:
http://booksellerchick.blogspot.com/

or to Eisler's blog at:
http://www.barryeisler.com/blog.html