Puttin’ Off the Ritz: The New Austerity in Publishing

While this article may spell some top shelf discomfort for the high rollers of publishing, there are discernible silver gleams from this dark cloud especially for the consumers, at least that I say. One of these is the forced assessment of the worth of new books; instead of flooding the new book tables with the latest thrillers this austerity will hopefully cut back on these works. The other gleam is the non-returnable book from the retailers. If book retailers cannot sell their books at the initial price this will cause the prices to be dropped. While not as good for the sellers this is good for the consumers to be able to pick up books at a cheaper rate. While there is no guaranteeing the types or quality of books for sale, there is some hope that desirable books will drop in price to be more accessible. The definitive downside to this clampdown is the loss of publishing good books because of the publishers need to produce what they believe will sell.