Adios, Borders

It's official--Borders is liquidating, and the book industry is reeling. People in publishing are saying things like, "Now print runs will be smaller, since the publishers will only be selling to one big chain, instead of two."

Huh?

Just because Borders is closing doesn't mean people will stop buying books. The number of readers and the number of books they read isn't changing. Where they can buy them is. So all this is just kinda like the hysteria that the 24-hour news networks drum up to keep people watching and sell ad time.

If you're an author, one thing that WILL affect you is that, as these final stores close, Borders will be returning the books it hasn't sold. And those returns will show up in the minus column of your royalty statements. But once these are in the system, it's over. People will still buy books; they will just get them from Barnes & Noble, or from Amazon, or from their local indie bookstore.

But hey, if you need some bookshelves--or possibly some oversized, red letters--I bet you can get some cheap.