Drama Queen of the Decade

Truth is sometimes so much more entertaining (and bazarre) than fiction......Did she even think about discussing her cold feet with any one of all those 500 family and friends before running away and triggering a nationwide search?

What Are They Thinking?

Couldn’t write all day today…can’t think of anything but the lack of logic behind the Congressional vote to cut the growth of Medicaid when the population of those who rely on it is growing daily and when even the affluent can hardly afford health insurance. WHAT are they thinking?!

This hits home for me particularly since I’ve been told that protocol for my mother’s skilled nursing care is as follows: once her assets run out, we will have to apply for Medicaid on her behalf. Her monthly income, which was plenty when she was a healthy, independent widow, does not cover HALF of her living expenses now.

Never mind the additional burden of the baby boomer population. My mother’s home (and every other home I visited when I was frantically trying to find a place for her to live so they could discharge her from the hospital) is jammed with people who can’t take care of themselves—can’t walk, can’t talk, can’t feed or dress or bathe themselves, let alone remember to take their medications on schedule.

Cut Medicaid growth by $10 Billion over the next 5 years…..have they looked at demographics lately? Have they looked at their elderly parents’ bank accounts lately?

Guess with this administration, we better all start looking at Long Term Care insurance for ourselves. Now, if only I could remember where I put that application….

Interesting Stats

Yesterday when I was ranting about the overpowering influence of one mega-celebrity over the sale of books, I came across some interesting statistics. Bear with me as I try to share them—making sense of numbers isn’t my strongpoint even though I was recently employed in the Finance Department of a huge corporation (I did documentation for them, not ledgers). But that is another story for another day.

The statistics from the Association of American Publishers show the book publishing industry net sales in the U.S. rose 1.3% from 2003 to 2004. This is encouraging, however this increase in sales has been decreasing steadily the past few years—6.4% from 2001 to 2002 down to 4.6% from 2002 to 2003. Hopefully it doesn’t mean people aren’t reading, maybe it means people are just borrowing books from each other and from libraries. Surely people are reading.

The more interesting figures were those of the largest growth categories. Adult hardbound book sales are up 6.3% from 2003 to 2004. That’s a fairly large percentage and surprises me since when I had my bookstore, my customers had the patience of saints and usually preferred to wait to buy a book when it came out in paperback. Hence the phrase "when I HAD my bookstore." Juvenile softbound book sales were up 3.8% from 2003 to 2004. Not a huge percentage, but this was VERY good news since sales in that category have been decreasing every year: -0.6% from 2001 to 2002 and -5.2% from 2002 to 2003. We’re not buying books for our children? What about all the hype about how important it is to read to our kids? All right, I won’t make assumptions, but come on!

Now the most interesting information in my mind was that religious book sales were up 5.6% from 2003 to 2004. Not too surprising given the political climate these days. But from 2002 to 2003 those sales increased---get this—50.2%. What is that all about? I have to admit that statistic is a little unnerving for me having come from a family that was torn apart by fundamentalist Christianity, but I’m not here to cast any dispersion on anyone else’s beliefs. I want to know what mega celebrity is behind that sales increase (besides the obvious, of course). And maybe, if we’re so desperate for sales, we should think about writing a little more religion into our contemporary fiction……

What Are You Reading?

A week late here, but was I the only one left dumbfounded by some of the women I most admire? The women of WordofMouthWriters.org? The desperate tone of their letter to Oprah Winfrey has been haunting me for days. The158 women authors made a dramatic plea for Oprah to reinstate her Book Club and save the "landscape of contemporary fiction in the U.S.".

First of all, can it be true that one celebrity's book recommendation can have that much impetus on the sale of books? And not just books in general....a book. Each title selected by the reknowned talk show host sold 650,000 to 1,200,000 copies? Those are huge numbers considering publishers may only do a first run of 2,000 copies of a new title, but overall Oprah's Book Club only featured 25 to 30 titles total. So volume sales of those 30 books upheld the contemporary fiction industry?

While any sales are good--can it be good that those sales are based on one person's opinion and a very narrow selection of literature? I recall when I was an independent bookseller and the large retailers were taking over the industry. I read an article that the big chains each had one buyer per genre who selected inventory for stores nationwide. The concern was that a handful of people were determining what titles and authors would be available to the entire general population. What power! Doesn't Oprah's influence muster up the same concern? I have to agree with Alex Good, Goodreports.net.

The only thing that can save the gloomy place the landscape of literary fiction has become is to encourage individual "literacy, thought and intellectual curiosity". Rather than blame the decline of sales on a celebrity's change of heart, perhaps we should all take it upon ourselves to crusade for our favorite authors or titles. The name WordofMouthwriters.org implies the power we have when we communicate openly among ourselves. Let's see....one media celebrity versus 158 women writers and all the rest of us who are passionate about reading. Perhaps the thing to do is ask everyone (celebrity or not) to discuss outloud what they're reading...at least sales might be more diverse.