Unavoidably, since the sky is falling in the land of the "Guardians of Culture", the clock has struck... Bailout Time!
It seems the manager of the biggest book assembly factory in the world has been running some prominent ads in the NYT (and elsewhere) to ramp up a campaign for the US Government to bailout traditional publishers. Yay!
Settle down folks, it's subsidy-advocacy time:
(Heh, this could get fun out there.)
On the Pro-side, the instigator himself, James Patterson, via Salon:
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/24/jame...y_bailout_ads/
Quote:
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The multimillion-seller author placed an ad last weekend in the New York Times Book Review and in Publishers Weekly (depicted below) advocating for government intervention — the same sort of bailout Goldman got — in order to save an industry besieged by bookstore closings and consolidation of the few remaining major publishing houses.
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Quote:
Do you see yourself at the forefront of a movement?
I don’t think we have a real strong spokesperson in the publishing community, someone who can stand up.
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I’m stepping up a little. But it’d be nice if it was the head of a publishing company.
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The ad itself is... interesting...
On the Con-side... Well, now, who might have a few choice words? Hmm...
Let's see:
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2013/0...patterson.html
Quote:
While our nation does have an unfortunate history of helping the careless, uber-rich upper class continue to stay uber-rich by cleaning up after their greedy mistakes by using the tax money of the middle class, how about instead the publishing industry simply tries to compete? Maybe by embracing technology instead of repeatedly trying to halt its progress? Maybe by lowering the prices of books so more people had access to them? Maybe by treating authors fairly?
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The Federal Government doesn't need to intervene. Unless they can somehow force every executive in NY Publishing to read my blog.
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Plenty more on both sites.
Bring your munchie snack of choice.
(I'm not much for popcorn but I have some Pringles lying around.)