Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
What does BPH stand for?
I'm guessing Big Publishing House, except that a lot of people around here seem to think they are stupid.
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Yes, Big Publishing House.
I don't quite think they're stupid except in the ways that any large corporation gets stupid--too caught up in profits-right-now for shareholders and unable to focus on the core purpose of their company. Combine that with the problem that *all* media companies are having with the changes brought by the internet, especially older ones, and you have "lack of flexibility that gives a good impression of utter stupidity."
For a long time "books" and "blocks of paper" were so entertwined that publishers didn't have to sort out which one they were more interested in selling--in order to sell book-content, you needed to sell blocks-of-paper, and that meant printers, distributors, front-facing in stores, and a large secondhand market driving new sales by established authors.
That's all wonky now. And it's understandable that they've been thrown for a loop. And they're really not stupid... but wow, they've got a lot of inertia (and a lot of investments) tied up in that "books=blocks-of-paper" concept, and they're fighting hard to keep it that way.
Which, when directly compared to small, nimble companies and individual author success stories, makes them look stupid. (And then they lash out at authors, which makes them look more stupid.)