Contemplating the peculiar state of affairs in my local Waterstones, where, from time to time, I do nothing more than assess the market as perceived by this particular retailer; made manifest in the manner in which their shop is laid out.
Apologies to anyone reading this, say, in Wells or Loughborough where their own branch of Waterstones is not as expansive as the one in my own fair city (which is complete with third floor Costa Coffee franchise outlet, don't you know...) but I dare say that any cursory look at even the smaller stores will give an indication of which direction Waterstones anticipates the book market to be headed.
Gone are the genre specific racks of books which made browsing in the old style W.H.Smith stores such a pleasure, but then gone are the publishing houses who turned out genre specific books for genre specific aficionados. I am not saying that such genre sections are missing in Waterstones, far from it, but they just aren't the same...
Best sellers are at the front of the shop, naturally (commercially that makes sense) alongside recommended reads (recommended by whom? Please remember that Richard and Judy are hardly the cornerstone of literary review) and strangest of all a whole bank of e-readers. I kindle you not. What exactly are you trying to tell us Waterstones? That you would rather have some of the market these machines are capturing instead of losing out entirely by only catering for traditionalists? (again it makes absolute, obvious commercial sense)
Where are the classics? Relegated to a side annexe, the last place you would visit upon deciding to leave the shop.
Where are the new writers, the Independant publishers and self-published novels? Right at the back of the store hidden away from everything. Even the counter staff were unable to locate one particular novel I enquired after, but there it was, hidden away at the back of the shop, isolated and unloved. I did at least find it. Yep, fuck you Amazon!
There is a whole bay and six whole shelves dedicated to manga and other types of graphic novels. An indication of the popularity of this form of literature amongst the masses or a warning about the increased level of illiteracy in the Country? At least, mercifully, teen fiction is still well catered for. They are still reading, thank goodness.
Vampires have all but taken over the horror section, with more than a slight edging in by a growing band of werewolves and the odd zombie. Teen vampires - please keep to the teen fiction section. There is no place for budding breasts in tight sweaters on 12-year olds and pubescent blood-letting in the adult section; not with it so close to the erotica section for Christ's sake...It's only a hop, skip and jump away from from full-blown paedophilia.
So, what sort of novels or genre do you write.? It frustrates me in waterstones that they don't separate the general into the genres... If I can't remember an authors name it involves an awful lot of book shelves to look through before I find they don't seem to have the one I want ! What about speculative fiction? My friend thought she was writing sci if, another thought they had written magical realism, but both were pigeon holed into speculative fiction, and neither made it into Waterstones.
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