Does Anyone Else Want to Protest Marco's Dismissal?

[Therin of Andor]

This was something I did with out realising before it got pointed out to me than when I buy my newspaper I will get the second or third from the pile and if there is only one left, I'll leave it!

I love when I'm glancing at the headlines on the top newspaper on the pile, and some other customer will slide the next one out carefully, as if my eyes have already polluted the top one.

 

[Christopher]

I love when I'm glancing at the headlines on the top newspaper on the pile, and some other customer will slide the next one out carefully, as if my eyes have already polluted the top one.

Maybe they just don't want to disturb your reading.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Maybe they just don't want to disturb your reading.

Well, probably, but since the pages are identical, whisking a paper off the top is barely an interruption.

 

[KRAD]

A friend of mine was launching a new line of independent comics, which they'd hoped to sell regularly in Australian newsstands. The general rule of thumb, to sell a comic or magazine, he was told, was that you need five copies in the stack in order to sell one. Marketing studies have shown that people will rarely take the often-fondled front copy to buy, and just one lone issue gets lost and unnoticed on a rack, even if the shop only thinks they'd sell one copy in that month.

So that concept of returns (for magazines and comics, at least) is based on people seeing a group of something and thus being inspired to buy one.

Yes, but newsstand periodicals can't possibly thrive without returns. And only newsstand comics are returnable -- comic book shops work on a nonreturn basis (which was a big deal in 1977 when Phil Seuling started the direct market for comics). But periodicals are viewed as a disposable item, generally, to be tossed when the next issue comes out. Completely different model from a book....

 

[Therin of Andor]

But periodicals are viewed as a disposable item, generally, to be tossed when the next issue comes out. Completely different model from a book....

What about "stripped"/"returned" books, where only the cover must be ripped off and returned to the distribution centre, meaning the retailer must send the rest off for pulping? Hence those messages in Pocket Books about... "if you purchased the book without a cover..."

 

[KRAD]

^ A relic of the days when mass-market paperbacks were considered as disposable as periodicals. Of course, publishing is a bit slow to change their ways -- hell, it wasn't until the late 1990s that they realized that, hey, maybe these computer thingies can help us produce books more efficiently!

 

[SicOne]

Krad and TerriO, thanks for the input on Marco. I didn't really expect anyone would dish on if Marco had the ass at someone at Simon and Schuster ("You'll never work in this town again!"), but previous comments made when he left made me think he was indeed upset at someone. Certainly he will (if he has not already) land on his feet, and I hope he returns to Trek. It would seem that the authors love him, based on authors' acknowledgements in recent books, and that he has tried very hard (and succeeded, based upon what I have been reading in the books) to have authors align their stories to provide more continuity than we have seen in past years in Trek.

Therin, I know what you mean regarding "stripped" books. Many moon ago, when dinosaurs roamed a lush and fertile planet, I worked for (pre-Borders) Waldenbooks and another local book store, and when it was time for returns (periodically for books, and once a week on Friday for magazines/comics), we packed up the hardbacks and trades in boxes and sent them back to the home office, then tore off the covers of mass-markets and magazines and comics and sent those in as well. Working primarily on Fridays, I carted off a milk-crate-ful of stripped magazines.

I'd be lying if I said those magazines were not of ill repute...