Jim Breen wrote:
> CL wrote:
>> Jim Breen wrote:
>>> Practices like Yohan's are illegal in Australia. A pity Japan doesn't
>>> have real trade-practices/restraint of trade laws.
>> Just about all publishing runs that way to one extent or another.  Yohan
>> was just more ruthless than most, eventually forcing Tower Records to
>> toe their line, too.  
> 
> I don't agree that "all publishing runs that way  .....", although
> some of it is nastily restrictive. Anyway Yohan was a distributor;
> not a publisher, so the usual "we have to look after authors"
> arguments simply don't apply.

Uh, yeah, it does.  That's what floorplanning and shelf space
competition is all about.  And then there's "promotion fees" paid to the
larger book chains and the big fights over who gets to put their "new
releases" bookshelf display where in the store.  Of course "payola" is
illegal so no one calls it that, but nevertheless, it exists in many
forms.  Which publisher has your rights, where they include you in their
portfolio, and which booksellers they have the best ins with all
determine how famous you can ever get and in what period of time.

>> Amazon nailed the lid on their coffin in record
>> time and the death was justified.
>>
>> Legality just depends on which dress it is wearing and who the fashion
>> critic is.  Getting a non-top-100 book on the shelves of the average
>> bookseller is effing near impossible in *any* major capitalist country
>> for any non-mainstream publisher.  And, if the topic is tripe, like most
>> of Debito's screeds, then the job is made doubly difficult.
> 
> Good trade practices legislation combined with a properly funded
> and staff watchdog organization does wonders. It's not fashion;
> just a standard component of a well-run community.

There is a basic problem in that neither good legislation nor effective
watchdog exists.  This has led to the basic law of the greediest
becoming the law of the land.  Most of the kind of "enforcement" you
speak of is controlled by law offices in Hollywood, Nashville, and New
York and the so-called "watchdogs" are actually only industry lapdogs.
There is no independent investigator answerable to The People in this
mix.  Which is why you have things like Region Codes on DVDs and
laser-cut numbering on book spines.  They contribute nothing to the
product, only to the bottom line of the greedheads running publishing,
media, and trademarking.

But, don't mind me.  Media attorneys and trademark lawyers are on my
list of People Who Will Die When the Revolution Comes, just after
Business School Grads and before Marketing Executives.

> Debito aside (and I have been crossing swords with him since
> since he was an Aldwinkle), I realise my first-hand book-trade
> experience is limited to Oz and the UK, but I haven't encountered
> that level of difficulty in getting marginal books on the shelves.

Okay, I confess that I am a published author.  But I stopped doing that
and never inhaled when I did.  Yes, it is always possible to get a
marginal author on a shelf.  What you cannot do is put that author's
books on any shelf where it will be likely to be noticed by 95% of the
book buying public.  THOSE shelves are owned by the big publishing
houses who pay for the right to put their authors under the noses of the
average buyer.

> The problem with Yohan going belly-up is that bookshops might
> simply stop getting books from gaikoku. It's a marginal business in
> Japan at the best of times. While there are heaps of distributors
> all over the English-speaking world who could ship into Japan, I
> doubt any of them would want to go to the trouble or expense of
> setting up a Japanese presence.

Before Amazon.jp, I used the Good Book Guide almost exclusively and
would buy about 30-40 books at a time from them for less than STG300,
most times.  British publishing discounts are astounding ... or used to
be, anyway.  Thing is, there was about a six week wait between order (by
fax) and delivery (by sea mail book bag -- you could ship books of up to
50kg for the same price).

About the only time I ever darken the door of a Japanese book store is
when I want to buy something local or if I run out of English things to
read while on the road.  But, now that Tokyu Group hotels will accept
Kuroneko / UPS packages for Comfort Member Card holders (I don't make up
these names) who have a reservation, I could order from Amazon.jp and
have books at my next hotel the same evening.

Switching to Amazon.jp has also meant that I buy a lot more softcover
books where I used to buy almost all hardcovers from GBG.  The Kuroneko
guy doesn't like heavy packages and charges accordingly.  I can't
mentally justify paying more than about 5% of the cost of my order (damn
accountancy requirement for my university degree ruined my tendency
toward profligacy) to ship it and with Japanese shipping companies,
ordering hardcover books can triple shipping charges almost
instantaneously.

-- 
CL