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In our previous career, we often pointed out to motion picture auditors that studios weren’t charities — they were, hard as it was to believe, for-profit ventures (yes, sometimes it’s hard to keep the face straight when you’re possibly saying the words Pauly Shore in the same sentence). The auditors, of course, were trying to squeeze additional extremely large pennies out of the studio. We understood. In the publishing world, it’s the big retailers, the Amazons, the WalMarts, the Tescos (we just love that word; it always reminds us of a Jazz Butcher song), who are squeezing the publishers — and guess who’s affected? The bid to push prices ever lower — which, in theory, we can get behind — impacts author royalties, not to mention the amount of money publishers can put into play for other enterprises, such as signing new authors and publicity. It’s far too early in the morning for politics, but we would ask that you think about the publishing food chain when you pay those low, low prices.

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