From: meikle@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Barry Meikle)
Subject: Re: First Book on Programming in NeXTSTEP Release 3.0
Organization: UTCS Public Access
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 21:17:00 GMT

In article <C0r0sE.8Jy@world.std.com>, in response to a typical publisher's
new release announcement :-) quanbook@world.std.com (Quantum Books) writes:
>
>Quantum Books strongly objects to the above post, and asks whether
>it ought not to be considered an inappropriate use of this newsgroup.
... 
>As might be of some interest to readers of this group, what makes this 
>posting further unwelcome is its broadcasting of a direct betrayal by a 
>publisher of its relationship with retail booksellers.  We support 
>Springer-Verlag by stocking their books, and they in turn pull the rug 
>out from under us by soliciting orders directly.  We do not believe 
>their legitimate means of maintaining marketing and editorial presence 
>should include abusing Net News in this way.

Well, yes, it _was_ a bit much -- but it wasn't Springer who posted the
article, it was geiger@next.com, passing along a piece of Springer's 
direct-marketing hype.  Anyone who's ever been on a publisher's mailing 
list knows how to read this kind of flurg, & at least they don't get
a chance to misspell my name on the mailing label this way :-)
There was _some_ information in the post, & despite having to wade
through all those unsolicited raves, I think the intentions were good.
Yes, it was out of line, but it's not pleasant to get bashed on for
what probably seemed like a good idea at the time.

As for your concerns about publishers dealing with customers directly,
well, I think that's something booksellers are going to have to learn
to live with (and use, and encourage).  Not everybody lives within
easy shopping distance of a Quantum Books, or a Computer Literacy.  A
lot of people are never going to see any Springer-Verlag book in their
local bookstore, or anything more technical than a lot of WordPerfect
books, for that matter.  Publishers' direct mail almost always includes
the "available through better bookstores, or order direct" line:  it's
a much rarer thing for a store to reciprocate & suggest that the customer
might be better served dealing with the publisher directly for a title
not stocked.  And as the net gets bigger & weirder & more mundane, it's
going to make it a lot easier for people to get at the information they
want.  Sometimes that means people shop direct -- & sometimes it means
they come into your store clutching their email printout, knowing exactly
what they're looking for.  

I suspect publisher direct marketing does almost as much to pull
customers into your store as your own marketing does.  It's just
information:  it's only as valuable as it is useful.  And that's 
the real problem with the offending posting -- on paper, you'd
never read all that tripe about how it freed you from the law of
gravity, you'd skim right through to the real information (price,
contents, availability).  As news, though, it was junk mail, &
harder to extract useful information from.  Easier to discard,
though.
-- 
Barry Meikle                                  University of Toronto Bookstore
1-416-978-7925 phone                214 College Street, Toronto, Ont. M5T 3A1
1-416-978-7242 fax                                meikle@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca
"They were all of them fond of quotations" - Hunting of the Snark
Newsgroups: misc.books.technical