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When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

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Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

#11

Post by drakonka »

carlosjobim wrote: post #10
drakonka wrote: post #2

I only skimmed this, have not yet read in great detail, but it made me think about backlists in indie publishing. This is a thing for self-published authors as well, only we tend to take a more optimistic view on the backlist: a large backlist is more of a benefit than a challenge. It is necessary to keep putting out new books of course to get new visibility, but income stability comes not from readers buying your sh…

> Likewise, covers and blurbs go out of date and need to be refreshed once in a while. Why? The reader understand that they are from another time.

Genre fiction readers usually do not want something that obviously comes from another time. They want something that is just unique enough to catch the eye, but largely similar to whatever cover trends are currently popular.

Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

#12

Post by alpinisme »

GJim wrote: post #8
freddie_mercury wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really don't understand why editors decided to rename Agatha Christie's 1939 book Ten Little Niggers in 1985? Or is that a "recent cultural trend" where you can understand why publishers followed the trend and made a change? Because once someone admits that change was okay, it's no longer a question of principles and just a series of judgment calls that different people will make differently. Publishers make chan…

Her book was based on a poem of the same name, written in the 1800's, in which ten children come to an untimely death. Famously, Christie set out to deliberately write her most technically challenging book, having ten people murdered on an island in a manner in keeping with the poem, whilst still keeping the reader guessing whodunnit. Most readers agree it was her best book by far. The idea that the book is racist si…

Nobody in this thread has said the book is racist. The question was whether you can see the motivation of retitling from a publishers (or for that matter booksellers) perspective. If you want people to buy the book, the old name is a turn off whether the content is raciest or not.

Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

#13

Post by freddie_mercury »

GJim wrote: post #8
freddie_mercury wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really don't understand why editors decided to rename Agatha Christie's 1939 book Ten Little Niggers in 1985? Or is that a "recent cultural trend" where you can understand why publishers followed the trend and made a change? Because once someone admits that change was okay, it's no longer a question of principles and just a series of judgment calls that different people will make differently. Publishers make chan…

Her book was based on a poem of the same name, written in the 1800's, in which ten children come to an untimely death. Famously, Christie set out to deliberately write her most technically challenging book, having ten people murdered on an island in a manner in keeping with the poem, whilst still keeping the reader guessing whodunnit. Most readers agree it was her best book by far. The idea that the book is racist si…

Who said the title implied the book was racist? Nobody said that, you're making things up.

You just don't put that word on the cover of a book due to "changing cultural trends"

Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

#14

Post by GJim »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #9
freddie_mercury wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really don't understand why editors decided to rename Agatha Christie's 1939 book Ten Little Niggers in 1985? Or is that a "recent cultural trend" where you can understand why publishers followed the trend and made a change? Because once someone admits that change was okay, it's no longer a question of principles and just a series of judgment calls that different people will make differently. Publishers make chan…

> My daughters are Asian I wouldn't buy them a children's book where "be Chinese" is considered an acceptable Halloween costume. There also exist people who would rather avoid buying books where the publisher changed the content in 1984 style to appease the woke moaners.

It's sad to see your factual statement downvoted.

There was indeed a huge backlash in the UK, amongst authors and the public, when publishers sought to edit classic children's books by Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton to make them politically correct. Children a quite capable of understanding something was written at a different time.

Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

#15

Post by GJim »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #13
GJim wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Her book was based on a poem of the same name, written in the 1800's, in which ten children come to an untimely death. Famously, Christie set out to deliberately write her most technically challenging book, having ten people murdered on an island in a manner in keeping with the poem, whilst still keeping the reader guessing whodunnit. Most readers agree it was her best book by far. The idea that the book is racist si…

Who said the title implied the book was racist? Nobody said that, you're making things up. You just don't put that word on the cover of a book due to "changing cultural trends"

Your last sentence contradicts your first!

Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

#16

Post by alpinisme »

GJim wrote: post #7
alexey-salmin wrote: post #5

> And here is a lovely classic children’s book — from 1960 — that’s about two little girls, and a witch, who has a baby, and a spelling bee, an actual bee that spells things. And there’s a minor part of the story where the girls are putting on their Halloween costumes, and one is a witch, and the other is “a little Chinese girl … and she had makeup on her face.” > I think we agree at this point that a nationality is…

I fail to understand why a story about a child innocently dressing up as someone from another culture is perceived by some Americans as racist.

It’s never really resonated with me either. But I think this thread has a good example in it: a patent not wanting their child to read a book in which people consider “you” to be an acceptable costume (making you feel strange or uncomfortable, since kids often don’t like being singled out or noted as different — especially not in a way meant to exaggerate and lean in to stereotypes). This is doubly true when the kids may already feel self conscious about their race due to any existing racism they personally encounter in the society.

Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

#17

Post by Geezus_42 »

GJim wrote: post #15
freddie_mercury wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said the title implied the book was racist? Nobody said that, you're making things up. You just don't put that word on the cover of a book due to "changing cultural trends"

Your last sentence contradicts your first!

No, it doesn't.

Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

#18

Post by aleph_minus_one »

alpinisme wrote: post #12
GJim wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Her book was based on a poem of the same name, written in the 1800's, in which ten children come to an untimely death. Famously, Christie set out to deliberately write her most technically challenging book, having ten people murdered on an island in a manner in keeping with the poem, whilst still keeping the reader guessing whodunnit. Most readers agree it was her best book by far. The idea that the book is racist si…

Nobody in this thread has said the book is racist. The question was whether you can see the motivation of retitling from a publishers (or for that matter booksellers) perspective. If you want people to buy the book, the old name is a turn off whether the content is raciest or not.

> If you want people to buy the book, the old name is a turn off whether the content is raciest or not.

This depends on the audience. For some people it is a turn off to adopt the title to a woke zeitgeist.

Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

#19

Post by aleph_minus_one »

GJim wrote: post #14
aleph_minus_one wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My daughters are Asian I wouldn't buy them a children's book where "be Chinese" is considered an acceptable Halloween costume. There also exist people who would rather avoid buying books where the publisher changed the content in 1984 style to appease the woke moaners.

It's sad to see your factual statement downvoted. There was indeed a huge backlash in the UK, amongst authors and the public, when publishers sought to edit classic children's books by Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton to make them politically correct. Children a quite capable of understanding something was written at a different time.

> Children a quite capable of understanding something was written at a different time.

Even if some person is certain that this is not the case, the child's parents hopefully are capable of explaining this to their children. :-)

Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)

#20

Post by b3ing »

GJim wrote: post #7
alexey-salmin wrote: post #5

> And here is a lovely classic children’s book — from 1960 — that’s about two little girls, and a witch, who has a baby, and a spelling bee, an actual bee that spells things. And there’s a minor part of the story where the girls are putting on their Halloween costumes, and one is a witch, and the other is “a little Chinese girl … and she had makeup on her face.” > I think we agree at this point that a nationality is…

I fail to understand why a story about a child innocently dressing up as someone from another culture is perceived by some Americans as racist.

It’s about thinking of people stereotypically, there might be a way to do it not so bad but it never is

See these examples

https://www.culturalsurvival.org/sites/default/files/nmai-sp...

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/browbeat/2013/1...

https://risetowin.org/assets/img/what-we-do/educate/resource...

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