Sunday, December 7, 2008

Chicken Little Gets a Time Out

I will admit that I sometimes enjoy being mildly alarmist. Still, recent events notwithstanding, some of my recent posts ("Panic", "Hindenberg") may have been counter-productive to those readers actually inclined toward hysteria. As Janet Reid reminds us, it is not the time to start dreeing your weird.

(Well, ok. For the people who have lost their jobs just before the holidays, probably it is.)

But for those of us still at sea on the great ship of publishing, this economy is not our iceberg. We've just hit some really choppy water. Work will likely be harder in the immediate future. We'll feel particularly bad about those colleagues we know who are out on their butts. There will be more drinking in publishing circles (marginally, as we've already set a pretty high bar for ourselves).

However: we will get through this. If you find wailing through the streets personally cathartic, though, feel free.

8 comments:

Sarah Laurenson said...

In the tough times of the past, people turned to light entertainment to forget their worries. Sounds like opportunity to me.

SWILUA said...

Can I wail through the streets in drag? Because that would make it awesome.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this link.

Anonymous said...

And for anyone still hearing that the folks at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt aren't buying anything, even in the children's dept. (I heard this again yesterday from someone supposedly "in the know"), my friend just got an offer there on a book. So ... hope lives!

Christine Tripp said...

Didn't someone once say, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself? I tend to try to not feed into media doom, gloom and fear reporting. Of course, Countries at war do suffer financially but Sarah, your right that historically, the entertainment industry flourished. Not sure if it will still hold true.
Found this bit of little on PW, I search out good news when and where ever possible:)

>With both publishers and booksellers reporting dismal sales for much of the fall, figures from Nielsen BookScan show that for the just-concluded Thanksgiving week ended November 30, unit sales from stores that report to its service rose 6% over Thanksgiving week in 2007. Unit sales hit 16.2 million, according to BookScan, with the largest gain coming in the children’s fiction category where units jumped 33.7%. The BookScan findings dovetail with reports from about a dozen independents that found business picking up a bit during Thanksgiving week led by the titles of YA author Stephenie Myers<

Heidi Willis said...

Sometimes I stop by here just for the post titles.

Of course, I'm not prone to hysteria. But your titles do get me laughing pretty hard!

Marcia said...

I've just spend over $100 on books for Christmas gifts. And another $50 beyond that on movies.

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