I started to think about the universality of the Word or more specifically: Writing. So much of writing is for profit-- especially in a commercial bookstore such as Borders-- and I can't help but wonder how that skews the entire body of literature.

A showcased book on Scrabble. I can imagine that scrabble is hugely popular amongst the Hatrackers, and you know what do hatrackers do more often than most, buy books.

Now I haven't actually worked out the possible negative effects of the free market on the quality and genre of popular books. But I do know that I really can't imagine a prominently placed book on bid whist(a card game heavily steeped in black american culture) in the market place.

Thought experiment:

Let's say that green haired boys read science fiction at a dispropotional amount at your local bookstore, this could be the case for a lot of perfectly innocous reasons, but how does effect the market for science fiction. Now working under the assumption that these teen boys are going to have an affinity toward strong green haired characters, and buy books featuring green haired at high percentage, what are the long term effects of this trend?

Now say you are a Tor publisher choosing books with authority only surpassed by the Old Testament God, and only because while God was not accountable to Caanans, Philistines, Schumites, or the Egyptians, you are accountable to the annual report and the profit margin. And let us assume that you have a 100 books of equal literary value but all showcasing a different gamut of winning traits in the hero: some excel using sharp wit, some transcend by divine gift, some rise above with compassion, some succeed by focusing raw ambitious, some vigor of Youth, the wisdom of age, some green hair, or a combination of any of the afore mentioned qualities plus a host of others that I failed to offer.

Now if you are the publishing company with the power to nearly will a writer into existence from whence there was none, which book are you going to pick. (I will spit that infinitive ten times out of time with out remorse.) Wherein do your responsibilities reside? Why? I have hardly come to an adequate answer, but I am hoping that the voices that live in this computer have a few worthwhile answers. Or even further isolate the problem.

Rundown:
There was a book in the display case for Scrabble.

quote:

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I think it was because the scrabble players read, and are more likely buy books. Now as an author or publisher, wherein do your priorites reside? Do you want to publish and showcase the largest audience, or the one which is more likely to to buy your book? How has commercialization impacted books? Are there any checks and balances in this?

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What point in time are you referring to when books weren't commercialised? [rolleyes]

As a publisher, your responsabilities lie in publishing books that sell well. It's that simple; the fact that better authors tend to sell (for whatever reason) more books is important only in that they sell more books, not because their work is intrinsically more valuable.

Authors don't have this responsability; on the other hand they do have the desire (which is a very different thing) to write books that sell well.