This is the sort of "debate" that makes my eyes cross and my head spin after a while on rasfc. ;)
For the record, I found your book, face out, in the new trade pb section when it was, uh, new. I'd been looking for it, so would have found it anyway. But I do love how Barnes & Noble put the new books in a new books section, cover front and center. It makes it easy to skim through and find something that intrigues me as much as what I specifically went looking for.
So imagine my annoyance the other day to discover the B&N a block from work is rearranging yet again and (for now) new trade pbs were all spine out! It takes me a long time to skim through during my lunch hour and I ended up leaving without really looking and empty-handed. I think in terms of the browsing public, cover out is a big deal for a book.
That said, I can understand and appreciate that bookstores would frown on authors or authors' friends and/or family going in and changing books from spine out to cover out. It undoes the work they've done and I could imagine a war of covers if someone comes along and pushes "your" book spine out so they could push "theirs" cover out!
I remember a "helpful" woman patron at my former library branch who reshelved books because she thought the author's name was misspelled. Different situation and she was just plain wrong whereas an author is just trying to drum up sales, but it still creates work and headaches for the staff. Yet I've read on many a message board, not just rasfc, of authors or family or friends of authors doing the cover out thing.
Is it right? I don't know, because I can't say that I wouldn't do it. But I would be a nervous wreck, hoping I wouldn't get caught. Heck, I'd just be thrilled to have a book published so I could face this particular dilemma. ;)
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Date: 2006-06-29 05:55 pm (UTC)For the record, I found your book, face out, in the new trade pb section when it was, uh, new. I'd been looking for it, so would have found it anyway. But I do love how Barnes & Noble put the new books in a new books section, cover front and center. It makes it easy to skim through and find something that intrigues me as much as what I specifically went looking for.
So imagine my annoyance the other day to discover the B&N a block from work is rearranging yet again and (for now) new trade pbs were all spine out! It takes me a long time to skim through during my lunch hour and I ended up leaving without really looking and empty-handed. I think in terms of the browsing public, cover out is a big deal for a book.
That said, I can understand and appreciate that bookstores would frown on authors or authors' friends and/or family going in and changing books from spine out to cover out. It undoes the work they've done and I could imagine a war of covers if someone comes along and pushes "your" book spine out so they could push "theirs" cover out!
I remember a "helpful" woman patron at my former library branch who reshelved books because she thought the author's name was misspelled. Different situation and she was just plain wrong whereas an author is just trying to drum up sales, but it still creates work and headaches for the staff. Yet I've read on many a message board, not just rasfc, of authors or family or friends of authors doing the cover out thing.
Is it right? I don't know, because I can't say that I wouldn't do it. But I would be a nervous wreck, hoping I wouldn't get caught. Heck, I'd just be thrilled to have a book published so I could face this particular dilemma. ;)