I've been away a few days, but in my overcrowded inbox tonight is a reply to
my letter from Neil Astley. I'd like to say I don't see him as some "devil"
either, just pigheaded and wrong on these subjects he has brought up.
Bloodaxe was a big inspiration twenty-odd years ago when I started Stride.
His reply basically insists that Bloodaxe, along with Faber, Penguin and
Picador, have rising sales figures through the bookshops [whereas the other
big[ger]presses and small presses don't] and that he has endless letters
from readers saying that the Bloodaxe anthologies have made them read lots
of other contemporary poetry. As long as he he keeps quoting these and being
"reader led" [whatever that is] I think we will simply see Bloodaxe
continuing to do what it is currently doing, which I don't find very
interesting.
I'm intrigued by the suggestion elsewhere on the list that books should
somehow not be part of a market! I can't see that the net book agreement
affected poetry publishers at all. Certainly i still give only 35 percent
discount and no wholesalers or shops have cancelled orders etc. They just
try things on. But if they want a title then they order it. And like
mainstream reviews, one simply accepts that there are ways to do this -
which often involve a kinf of bribery and corruption or at the very least
buying drinks and beeing seen in the right places. But who in their right
mind is that worried about this?
Rupert
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