a barn's ignoble heads

[sergebroom]

A couple of days ago, I went to the local Barnes & Noble to see if they had an SF book I was looking for. They did. I then decided to look at the F/SF section's two shelf units displaying new hardovers and trade paperbacks. And discovered that it's now down to one single shelf unit and it shows only hardovers. From now on, if you're looking for new trade paperbacks, and you don't already know what's new, tough. I asked a salesperson about the change and, as I expected, the decision had been made by the headquarter's idiots. She didn't call them idiots. I did, but she appeared as impressed as I was over the imbecility of people who make decisions and who cares about the people who are out there who know the business? Who cares if the writers of paperbacks and trade paperbacks who provide most of the store's 'content' can't make a living because people don't know about them?

Comments

[shadowsong]

Huh, that would be the one thing that wouldn't bother me. I prefer having everything shelved alphabetically rather than separating out new releases, because I always go through the whole section anyway.

Still, not making a big deal of new releases is a waste of opportunity. I wonder if all the idiot managers from Borders (who believe if you know business you don't need to know about THIS business to run it) have moved on to BN?

[sergebroom]

There is still an area saying "Hey you! There's some neat new stuff here by authors you like, and by authors you don't know, but you might like them!" The books can also be found in the rest of the F/SF section, in alphabetical order. Once upon a time, that was for all book formats. Then paperbacks lost that. Trades then did. How can a newbie be noticed unless there's a hardcover?

As for your last comment... That was a trick question, eh?