Mortality and Libraries
Change is inevitable, Loss is guarenteed
When I was a new author I thought that donating my books to libraries would give me a bit of immortality in this world. That seemed true for awhile as the number of my book published increased. Well past 40 books I realized libraries and the world hadchanged.
If a book is not read for certain number of years, it gets d-accessioned even if the author works there, even if it was a book donated in memory of someone. The cruel scythe of time falls on its neck.
The cost of a book isn’t just the purchase price, it’s also the cataloging, covering, stickering, and other processing. This is all wasted when a book is d-accessioned. Even classics are not safe. So library shelves, especially in small libraries, are stuffed full of so-called best sellers. Books the publishing industry has decided will be best sellers.
If you want a classic, there may be a copy somewhere in the county and you can request it. Or actually you can buy it at the dollar sore where they are selling reprints of some classics. You should be be able to find an electronic copy online if it is out of copyright.
But my books will be d-accessioned and hit the jumble table at the next sale. I might eve buy them if I find them. Libraries have a space problem and will offer what patrons want. Not only that, most people don’t want classics or historicals. They don’t even want picture albums or paper books. They want fast with no strings. They want whatever fits in their phone, until they break or lose the phone. Then they want what they had stored on the cloud.
In this depressed mood I stumbled on myWild Rose sales recod and realized many of the sales of electronic books are to librariaes. Suddenly I felt a little more immortal.
Younger people tend to read short if they read at all. Maybe they have less time that we did. Or are they distracted by so many other kinds of entertainment. Such as the ads for gambling games which seem to me like children's games except for the chance to lose a lot of money.
I recall how sad it was in the library when we heard an author had died. The first thing we did was take away all the free space on that shelf since they would not be needing it.
Younger people tend to read short if they read at all. Maybe they have less time that we did. Or are they distracted by so many other kinds of entertainment. Such as the ads for gambling games which seem to me like children's games except for the chance to lose a lot of money.
I recall how sad it was in the library when we heard an author had died. The first thing we did was take away all the free space on that shelf since they would not be needing it.