Not that long ago, maybe 10 or 12 years ago, the Edgar Award nominees were Big Stuff. We would hold doing any returns until after they were announced early in the year - which was dangerous, as it means holding onto lots of books that should have been returned to lower the end-of-the-year inventory for tax purposes. But we'd learned over the years that as soon as the nominees were announced the calls would start, with collectors from around the country trying to find 1st printings. Man, you sure hoped that you had a supply of at least a couple of the nominees, better still if they were signed. If we didn't have copies, we would scramble to get them from the wholesalers. We'd try to get at least five copies of each and we'd just have to hope that they'd arrive in good shape, clean and crisp and desirable.
The whole thing would start over on the night of the Edgar banquet. We'd try to find someone who was going and arrange for them to call us so that we could try to get more copies of the winners first thing that next morning. Had to have them. Had to.
We'd put big signs in the front windows - "New Edgar Nominees Now In" or "Edgar Winners Available", something like that. People would specifically come in to look for them, to ask for them. To read them and judge for themselves.
But something shifted over the years. We now have one man who, each year, wants a copy of each nominee. He doesn't care about printing but he'd prefer hardcover. He's it.
Since the awards were announced last Thursday, no one has asked about them. We put the winners in last Friday's newzine. No reaction. We have the list of nominees with the winners underlined on our front counter and none have sold.
No one seems to care or pay attention...
What happened to the Edgars?
Reading this is like reading about the death of an old friend I haven't seen for years.
I've been trying to be open minded about the changes in publishing and people's reading habits, and (I know this isn't popular here, but...) I absolutely LOVE my Kindle. But, seeing the pillars of old guard collapse like they are is hard to watch.
I'm sure in time things will equalize, but they'll never be same, and on some nostalgic level, that truly makes me sad.
Posted by: vmars | May 25, 2012 at 10:49 AM