Letters to the Editor

First Disappointed, Now Happy

To the Editor:

I must admit, I was disappointed when it was decided to go online with Bookselling This Week. But, are the articles more interesting than when BTW was printed, or is my imagination? I seem to be reading more of it, at any rate. Keep up the good work.

The new "printing options" format is so easy, if I want to print something or send a copy to a customer.

Thanks,

Valerie Yeager
Book Bargains
Kissimmee, Florida

To the Editor:

I know how "old-fashioned" this makes me sound, but I really do miss the BTW (nee ABA Newswire) in its old paper format. I even miss the monthly American Bookseller magazine. I can't help but feel that it has been a terrible mistake to give up entirely on print media and paper. These publications helped bind together not just the direct members of the Association, but the much larger hordes of front-line booksellers, many of whom are part-time or temporary employees. These booksellers will never be exposed to the various issues of our industry because they will never take the time to subscribe, much less download, read, and print out articles that appear only in the digital ether. An old copy of BTW, however, lying around the break-room long enough, eventually got read by everyone who worked in the store, and information got passed along.

I am well aware of the financial argument. I realize that it is much cheaper to send out e-mail newsletters than produce a finished and more permanent hard copy for members. But that should not be the first concern. It is a valuable service for members. After all, ABA has already lost millions in the last two years alone on highly speculative ventures that had no precedent and serve a minority of members. (We can leave aside, for the moment, the various legal peccadilloes and Internet misadventures, which have squandered the war chest built up during Bernie Rath’s era.) So why is a vital communication link with the entire bookselling community considered to be less valuable than pursuing economic dead ends that only benefit a couple of hundred members? What services are being provided to the rest of us, dues-paying members of ABA, who may not necessarily share your vision of a digital future for Independent Booksellers?

Finally, I believe we have lost a forum for the airing of ideas, particularly those which might challenge the status quo or the ABA "company line." Gone is the "Letters to the Editor" column which so often enlivened the publications that ABA used to put out. (Publications of which you were an integral part, I might add!) The current BTW is okay as far as it goes, but all too often it resembles a bland press release, without any diversity of viewpoints. The risk is that it could easily descend to that most unforgivable state for an American publication: to be boring.

So, there you have it: a curmudgeonly review of the publication side of ABA. I realize there are many more compelling issues facing the organization -- such as its financial stability going forward -- but this is one that is near and dear to my heart, and probably is for many members. We are readers, dammit, and make no apologies for it! If it is old-fashioned to enjoy holding words and pictures on actual paper in your hands, then so be it. I know you can't fight the future, but that does not invalidate what was right about the past. So here is my plea -- Please reconsider publishing BTW the old-fashioned way -- on paper, mailed to members. Give us back that respite from the junk mail and invoices that BTW used to represent. You will be doing a great service to your members. And isn't that what it is really all about?

Sincerely,

David W. Didriksen
Willow Books & Cafe
Acton, Massachusetts