Day one of my RWA ramblings

I'm going to start my rambling with the AFTER RWA event I attended because it summed up what RWA was all about this year. The industry is changing in a big way. So Sunday — I had the good fortune of joining a great group of readers from Long Island and two fabulous authors for a book signing. Ironically this was at the Barnes and Noble I used to go to often when I lived there. The minute I walked in it was clear MUCH had changed. The entire middle section no longer looked like a bookstore but rather a MAC store. There were no book displays at all.

When we went upstairs the romance section had changed dramatically. What use to be a back wall that spammed four rows of romance novels had turned into ONE SHORT row front and back. No back row, no other rows. Do you know how few books that means they had? Had few authors? Wow. Just Wow.

Then we get to the signing area to discover they'd ordered ten copies of each books — even for Lara Adrian — who is a top selling author. Wow again. They said they wouldn't risk not selling them. There were 70 people there who would have all bought one of each book. It was just nuts.

The signing started and normally the bookstore would introduce the authors and transition them from talking to signing. We never saw the store staff.

I've read a lot of speculation that Barnes and Noble will close or downsize stores as leases expire. My prediction is that this mini store in the store from the photo is the future Barnes and Noble. Sad. So sad.

Book signings and print books — gone.

I think its happening too fast. The huge upload of new authors and books that are not properly edited is going to crowed the on-line market and cause challenges. Readers will be overwhelmed. More authors than not, will be overlooked.

One thing I think could happen is that authors go direct to the publishers they once loved because they realize this is a way to get by the crowed search engines on Amazon that are manipulated by their best sellers. I tend to think they will manipulate it more as their publishing program ramps up more.

Walmart will have more power until print goes away. Walmart can make or break a career more than ever now because they are one of the ways print authors can get to readers in that format. Walmart will still allow that visual purchase that allows discovery for new authors by readers. There is a tiny window for authors to use that opportunity that will be lost sooner than later, or at least, that is my prediction. Barnes and Noble isn't stocking. Borders is being liquidated. So Walmart. It's all Walmart. Some Target and KMART but not much. A few grocery chain.

I can only imagine how the world of publishing will look next RWA. It will be interesting to see. I'm sad because I love my print books. I'm happy for new opportunities that the new world creates for many authors though as well. I just fear its happening too fast and that it is going to be a bumpy road for many.

Lisa