ellenkushner | Life's Little Annoyances

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life's little annoyances

Life's Little Annoyances

People asking "Where can I buy your books?"

What on earth do they mean by that?

Where do we usually buy books, folks?

This is particularly annoying in the age of internet, where, even when they're self-published, the answer is always "Amazon."

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Well, some call it "Bus Drivers Syndrome." (see prior post on the subject: http://isabelswift.livejournal.com/14544) It's easy to find--if you know where & how to look, what the categories are, what the right questions are, what the answers mean. But for some, book buying--it's an undiscovered land.

And the Amazon is a big river. If you didn't already know where to go on line, would you know how to find a book in Amazon? Which Navi-bar to check? Right or left side? Select for books? Can you just put an author's name in the box? What if someone has the same title, what will come up? Really there is a lot of sh*t to wade through--you just don't see it anymore because you've done it a million times. I know it seems obvious, but you try walking into a B&N superstore & think about where on earth you are supposed to even begin to look for your niece Fifi's book. Fiction? Literature? A-Z? Hardcover? Paperback? Fantasy? YA? Maybe that store categorizes things in a different way....And maybe you don't want to ask the harried clerk (if you can even find one) and you don't know how to use the computer info terminal. Maybe it's all just an exercise in humiliation and frustration. As movingfinger notes, they just want to be pointed to a guaranteed good time, and that's not easy.

If you're in the business of selling books, do think about how clueless someone can be & still find your work. Preaching to the choir isn't going to convert anyone.

I have to agree with this.

Sadly, reading has become a specialized niche activity in the eyes of a lot of people, and it's a whole culture that they are unfamiliar with.

Amazon's front page and interface have become unnavigable for anyone not an expert in Internet web page elaboration. It needs to be simplified, possibly to a Google-like one-line search box. Last month I tried to walk a novice through an Amazon order and it was impossible---there was too much extraneous, too much irrelevant, and too many things to explain.

And don't get me going on accessibility for the visually disabled...at Amazon and everywhere else...

That's a good point. Even supposedly savvy sf/f bookbuyers can be completely flumoxed if their favorite author's latest book happens to be YA.

Amazon's search is a disgrace. If I want to find a book at Amazon, I go to google to find the amazon link.

This isn't an obvious strategy for everyone.

I wonder if anyone's analyzing the use of computers as a folk art.

And, if you want a simplified amazon home, behold Amazon Lite (http://www.kokogiak.com/amazon/).

Edited 2008-12-21 16:02 (UTC)

"I'm an author."

"Published?"

That one doesn't bother me. Seems a reasonable question - and I actually kind of enjoy getting to reply offhandedly, "Oh, sure" and supply details if asked.

The part I don't like is when they follow it up with, "Have I ever heard of you?"

That is just silly.

No, what I'm afraid I'm responding to in my post is the perceived (by me) implication that my books are weird and fringey and therefore not published by real publishers and for sale in real stores where real books are sold to normal people. Judging by most peoples' comments so far, that's just the giant chip on my old shoulder. But in my own defense I will add that I am not talking about getting this question from people (and, oh, let's say old friends who recently found me on FaceBook) who do not buy books for themselves pretty often. I find it somewhat painful to have to cheerfully drag out my, "Why heavens, you can find them in justabout any bookstore, or on the internet!" line. Some people have even asked me, "Are they in normal bookstores?"

Chip, chip, chip.

Yeah,

coppervale, I guess it could be worse. I could write comics.

Having recently picked up copies of a few of your books for holiday gifts, I can attest that they are sold in Normal Bookstores, like Borders, in the Normal Section of Science Fiction.

Twenty-first century shopping experience: I got an Instant Message on my phone from

jlighton, using his phone, from a bus, to ask, "Okay, so, with the game store Neutral Ground closing, is there anything you want as a non-denominational holiday present that you didn't already pick up from them?"

I IMed back, "Yep, Grand Tome of Adversaries for Witch Hunter, and if that's sold out, I can give you alternatives. How about you? I'm in the Borders near Penn Station."

He IMed me with a link to the web page where most of his fiction is cataloged. Quick check: Nope, doesn't have Thomas the Rhymer, doesn't have any McKillip. Right. One Rhymer, one Riddlemaster. All good. (He's read TPotS and Swordspoint.)

Great story!

Thanks. I also got Swordspoint and Privilege of the the Sword for the daughter of my ex-assistant (who is now running the department, which is good, except that said department now consists of, well, just her) who is now sixteen. I gave a quick run down of the possible flags to her mother.

I already knew that mother and daughter were okay with fantasy and sf about weird religious stuff, including made up religions ("Oh, that's fine -- she finds it interesting") and violence ("It's okay -- she just read the first Narnia book, and there's plenty of violence in that.") I figured TPotS wasn't a problem, as it's a coming of age story, and that seems to allow for an awful lot to slip in, but I wasn't sure about the other, so said up front that it was a gay romance.

"Oh, that's fine -- she knows about all that stuff," said her mother.

"Oh, good," I said. "I have no idea what kids today know."

"I start to explain about something and she says, 'Oh, Mommy, I already know that."

I sort of remember being 16. But, it's already blurring in my head with being 26 and 36.

It's a rude question, but speaking as a swamped reader, there's a chance that I'd recognize (or even have read) an author's books without remembering their name.

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Life's Little Annoyances

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