Blogville is buzzing (well, OK, gently humming) with a scrap between a U.S. thriller writer and an unidentified independent bookseller located somewhere in the American Midwest — a scrap that touches on chains vs. indies, etiquette and emotion, cold business realities, and more.
Here’s the background: the store in question recently hosted an event that featured Barry Eisler (author of The Last Assassin and Killing Rain, and others) appearing along with two other authors. Afterward, Eisler and some of the store’s management staff enjoyed a dinner together. And after the dinner, Eisler mentioned that he planned to drop by the local Barnes & Noble to sign any copies of his books that they had on hand, and did anyone know the way to get there?
A bit gauche, to be sure.
So one of the store’s staffers, “G,” sent Eisler an e-mail the following day. “Signing stock at chain stores signals to the people who did take the time to come to [our event] and support you that their effort was not necessary,” he wrote. “More importantly, calling attention to that fact that you need to leave to do such a thing is insulting to your hosts.”
Fair enough, though G also felt the need to lecture Eisler about the issue of on-sale dates vis-a-vis chain stores (hardly an author’s lookout, no?) and to threaten him in elaborate passive-aggressive ways: “Independents talk to one another regularly. We love to make people stars, it’s why we do what we do…. [But] when we want to kill an author we can always make it look like natural causes. There’s always a different book to push.”
Eisler responded, and he was not at all cowed: “I can’t apologize for signing stock at chains, my friend. They’re important distributors in my business, and I can’t make a living selling through independents alone (nor would I have been able to build my business as I have without the backing of independents). If I insulted you by doing [as I see best] for my business, I regret it, and am somewhat surprised, as it’s not a reaction I’ve run into before.”
Eisler also posted his entire e-mail exchange with the bookseller on his website (kindly editing out G’s full name and the name of the store, though some commenters appear to have known or deduced it), and his post has generated a great deal of discussion.
We’d love to know what Q&Q readers think: is it bad form to sign stock for competing booksellers in a given town? Is G over-reacting? Should Eisler show a little more decorum? Comment below.
Related links:
Click here for Barry Eisler’s post on his website
