Warren Ellis interviews William Gibson

[thewayne]

Authors interviewing authors are frequently good things. Sadly, it's only three questions. One of these days I'll read more Gibson.

http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/15-08/pl_print

Comments

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

It's worse than that— more than 50% of books in the US are not sold in bookstores, they're sold in supermarkets (including places like Target.) So you're not aiming for the typically literate bookstore types; you're competing against magazines and shiny impulse purchases.

This was the explanation I received for why science fiction and fantasy covers are the way they are in the US, as opposed to the more moderate covers you see in Britain. They all have to scream "ME! ME! BUY ME!"

[silveradept]

Ooog. Really? It's not bookstores, but those piddling offerings on supermarket shelves that get bought? That's kind of sad, considering of what I usually see there, most of it looks to be the long harlequin romance type of stuff. If we could just get them into a library...

...but that does help explain why covers are the way they are, yes. Explosions, creatures, or improbably-constructed wo/men in equally improbably-constructed costuming seems to be what people think will sell a book.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Makes sense, specially since the #1 supermarket is unfortunately Walmart. Come to think of it, as a kid we used to shop at a store chain called Fed Mart, I don't know how big they were, but I don't think they really survived into the 80's, at least in Phoenix. I clearly remember buying my first Fred Saberhagen there, "The Dracula Tape" (I still have it). It had to be very early 70's. At the time I really didn't know SF, I shortly started buying used copies of Analog magazineby the (paper) grocery bag-full. That began introducing me to a wider range of authors and began refining my SF interests.