Bookstores, and pet peevish things...

This is my first posting in my Blog - I think it'll be therapeutic for me. First off, I should tell you that I'm a small press publisher living in the booming metropolis of Rosseau, Ontario (population 400). We're right in the heart of Muskoka (Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell's cottage is 10 minutes down the road from our town). I look at being a publisher, not as a job, but as a way of life. It's getting nice lump-sum paychecks that have to last for two months; it's being overjoyed when an order for $7.95 comes my way (because that means someone is reading a magazine I produced). It's working on holiday weekends, Christmas Day (sometimes), and often while many people are sleeping, I'm still up researching. It's loving my job and hating my job... sometimes in equal measure.

I collect Coca-Cola commemorative 8 oz. bottles and Pop Shoppe memorabilia. I love my eMac, my Toyota Echo Hatchback, diet Coke, Fruit Loops, WWE wrestling, McDonald's, and I'm married to an amazing girl who is just as stubborn and strong-willed as I am. It makes for some challenging confrontations. :0)

Before I had my own publishing company, I once complained to a magazine editor that a check he had written to me for a freelance story had bounced; he said that the publishing industry was tough and if i didn't believe him, I should try it. I did - and he was right. But fortunately, nobody does what I do, the way that I do it. And I love that about myself. And even when things seem bleak... when a magazine I projected to perform just doesn't get there or when money I thought I was getting doesn't show up - I never give up. Because I know that somehow, someday, the time and dedication I've put in will reward me in ways I haven't even imagined yet.

I've met a lot of very interesting people in my publishing journey - and at least one pesky ad rep that will remain nameless that I'd rather forget. I've had the chance to meet face to face with Sarah Polley (actress from "Go" and "My Life Without Me"), Lex Luger (a rather beefcake-like professional wrestler), and countless local personalities and politicians. More recently, I've met many people from the soda pop collecting world (to me, they are the most interesting people I can think of). And I've logged some 350,000 km on my car(s) over the past 10 years chasing - and keeping - my dream.

That, in a nutshell, is me. Whew.

Now then... on to my pet peeves, which is the reason for this particular Blog in the first place.

Tonight my wife and I drove to Barrie (a rather large city with two large malls and a ton of places to shop). We make this shopping trip about once a month just for something to do. Anyway, we dropped in at Chapters bookstore. (Chapters, for those of you following along at home is like Borders or some of those huge department store-like bookstores.) Being a publisher, I love to just spend an hour going through the magazine racks. I don't read the magazines - I check them out to see what's new, which magazines are still around, things like that. I'm always amazed with the scope that magazines cover. It's true that these days, there's a magazine for EVERYONE. I just saw "Black Men" magazine today for the first time. I guess I'm not really surprised (well, maybe a little bit). Other magazines like "Teen Girl", "Fit Pregnancy", and others now seem to fill every demographic and niche imagineable.

Shameless plug - I publish:
Soda Pop Dreams Magazine - http://www.sodapopdreams.org
The Soda Spectrum Series - http://www.pww.on.ca/spectrum.htm
Everything 80s Magazine - http://www.80smagazine.com

Sorry, just had to slip those in there :) - my point is, there are literally thousands of magazines out there. It always inspires me on trips to Chapters. My mom has, for years, worried that magazines are on their way to extinction. I think that nothing could be further from the truth. The magazine industry may be more cut-throat than it used to be, but the market as a whole has never been more plentiful. The problem is, when people forget they're in a bookstore and not a library.

Which brings me to my issue with Chapters. Who the hell decided to put comfy chairs and ass-pleasing carpeting in these mega bookstores? Whoever it was, it'd like five minutes with him/her alone in a room so I can beat them over the head with a copy of Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneurial Idiot. Today I saw a woman sitting in Chapters with a huge stack of books on one side of her and a stack of magazines on the otherside. Last time I checked, it didn't say "Chapters Public Library" on the sign out front of the store. In another corner, a teenager all of about 16 was flipping through a magazine, snapping her gum - subscription cards strewn around her as she folded back the spine. Another woman was sitting on the floor with a big pad of paper scribbling things down, taking more books off the shelf and thumbing through them - and then there was more note taking. She was doing research. I thought I was going to be sick to my stomach just watching her.

Sometimes I feel like I'm on the outside looking in... my magazines do very well being sold by subscription or single-copy sales from our website. They are not on newsstands in Canada or the U.S. (because bookstores take 40% of the cover price to sell them, and distributors take another 20%) - and I don't mind telling you, I'm not terribly sad about that now.

When I go to Chapters I always leave having purchased at least a few magazines. Today I bought two magazines, a book, a calendar, and a greeting card. Most people there didn't even buy a coffee. As a publisher, I hate people that abuse the system. Unless your last name is "Rowling" or "Black" most authors/publishers don't make a gazillion dollars in our industry. They have to fight for every dollar that comes their way.

And just as I was about to lay the smackdown on that "researching" woman in Chapters, my wife reminded me that Chapters doesn't exactly discourage people from doing that. Otherwise they wouldn't provide comfortable chairs and they'd have a loitering rule in place. I hate it when my wife is right. So do I blame the Chapters organization for allowing it, or should I blame the cheap lazy bastards who can't be bothered to buy something that they're obviously interested in reading?

Here's a tip for all those would-be bookstore book-hoggers. There's this new invention - it's called a library card.

That's all for now. Thanks for visiting my Blog; come back soon when I promise not to bitch and moan so much. ;0)