I don't know Marco Palmieri. I've never met him. I've never had any conversations with him. I'm sure I've asked him a question once and a while on these forums. I've read his posts, of course. I've got no connection to him other than my impressions and feelings of what he's done for all of us who enjoy Star Trek literature, whether we be writers or readers.
That said, I feel deeply saddened and fairly well outraged at his unceremonious and undeserved dismissal from his position of Senior Editor at Pocket Books via Simon and Schuster. That said, I'm one reader. Nothing I say or do on my own will amount to a hill of beans. In all honesty, I am doubtful that anything done even by all of us here who read these books will amount to much, either.
S&S is a multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporation. This is an economic down-turn the likes of which our economy, nationally of globally, has not seen in decades. Decisions are driven by the almighty dollar, now more than ever. Our collective sadness and outrage may well do not one thing to change that. Yet I feel compelled to try, compelled to at least stand up and say, "I'm not happy about this, I think this was a foolish decision done without proper consideration of the circumstances, and I may well put my money where my mouth is out of that belief and refuse to purchase any product in any way associated with Simon and Schuster as a result of that."
Am I alone in this?
I know that our author friends here, though they may well feel as passionate - likely, much more passionate - are likely unable to express that. This economy is not the kind in which you risk biting the hand that feeds you. That's not a knock on them, it's a fact of reality and life. I don't want to see any of our author friends penalized or at risk for supporting our discontent with Marco's dismissal. They need to remain outside the fray, in order to continue their work, and Marco's, without interuption and distraction. This has to be about the readers, now. To the bean counters, as KRAD coined, I think this has to be about the consumer. Our author friends need to be Switzerland right now, for a multitude of reasons. We readers, our responsibility, if I'm not alone in my feelings here, is to stand up for what we want and believe.
Right now, I'm not sure what I think we should do to show our discontent. Right now, I want to know if my discontent is so shared. I'm not out to start some sort of grass-roots movement here. I'm also not out to see our Star Trek authors suffer by saying "don't buy Trek books" as... that would just be plain stupid of me and us. As a larger company, though, Simon and Schuster have other more vulnerable corporate extremeties we may be able to boycott in a show of our feelings. We're not quite at that juncture, yet. Right now, we're at the "do we care enough to do anything?" stage.
If the answer to that question is yes, then the first thing I'd think we should do is say so. Perhaps we'll call in to S&S corporate offices and voice our discontent. Perhaps we'll try to rally some sort of mail campaign. Marco's name is Palmieri - perhaps we can send S&S some palm fronds accompanied by letters, like the Jericho campaign sent peanuts to CBS. I don't know yet. Right now, we need to say whether or not we want to do anything or not. Figuring out what comes next will be the next step.
So... what say we all?
That said, I feel deeply saddened and fairly well outraged at his unceremonious and undeserved dismissal from his position of Senior Editor at Pocket Books via Simon and Schuster. That said, I'm one reader. Nothing I say or do on my own will amount to a hill of beans. In all honesty, I am doubtful that anything done even by all of us here who read these books will amount to much, either.
S&S is a multi-national, multi-billion dollar corporation. This is an economic down-turn the likes of which our economy, nationally of globally, has not seen in decades. Decisions are driven by the almighty dollar, now more than ever. Our collective sadness and outrage may well do not one thing to change that. Yet I feel compelled to try, compelled to at least stand up and say, "I'm not happy about this, I think this was a foolish decision done without proper consideration of the circumstances, and I may well put my money where my mouth is out of that belief and refuse to purchase any product in any way associated with Simon and Schuster as a result of that."
Am I alone in this?
I know that our author friends here, though they may well feel as passionate - likely, much more passionate - are likely unable to express that. This economy is not the kind in which you risk biting the hand that feeds you. That's not a knock on them, it's a fact of reality and life. I don't want to see any of our author friends penalized or at risk for supporting our discontent with Marco's dismissal. They need to remain outside the fray, in order to continue their work, and Marco's, without interuption and distraction. This has to be about the readers, now. To the bean counters, as KRAD coined, I think this has to be about the consumer. Our author friends need to be Switzerland right now, for a multitude of reasons. We readers, our responsibility, if I'm not alone in my feelings here, is to stand up for what we want and believe.
Right now, I'm not sure what I think we should do to show our discontent. Right now, I want to know if my discontent is so shared. I'm not out to start some sort of grass-roots movement here. I'm also not out to see our Star Trek authors suffer by saying "don't buy Trek books" as... that would just be plain stupid of me and us. As a larger company, though, Simon and Schuster have other more vulnerable corporate extremeties we may be able to boycott in a show of our feelings. We're not quite at that juncture, yet. Right now, we're at the "do we care enough to do anything?" stage.
If the answer to that question is yes, then the first thing I'd think we should do is say so. Perhaps we'll call in to S&S corporate offices and voice our discontent. Perhaps we'll try to rally some sort of mail campaign. Marco's name is Palmieri - perhaps we can send S&S some palm fronds accompanied by letters, like the Jericho campaign sent peanuts to CBS. I don't know yet. Right now, we need to say whether or not we want to do anything or not. Figuring out what comes next will be the next step.
So... what say we all?
