Interesting Links for 04-04-2020

[andrewducker]

Farmers in the USA are dumping milk in the sewer because they can't sell it. A triumph of capitalism!

(tags:capitalism milk food OhForFucksSake pandemic )

Life on Mars creator confirms third and final series is in the works

(tags:TV )

How the pandemic is hitting the publishing business

(tags:business publishing pandemic Doom )

Google knows if everyone is actually staying home or not

(tags:Google surveillance location pandemic )

MP responds to constituent who thinks that pictures of rainbows are turning children gay

(tags:LGBT rainbow politics )

Comments

[helen_keeble]

I’m a full-time self pub author. Even indie ebooks took a dive this month across many genres. A lot of people have very little free money or time at the moment, or aren’t in a headspace for reading books. I write romance (usually a huge seller, and an escapist genre you’d expect to be popular in a time of crisis) and my readers are saying in my fan group that they’re just snowed under with childcare, work, and general stress. Most of them normally read a book a day, but that’s gone way down.

I expect this to pick up in a few months as people find the new normal - we may even see a rise in indie ebooks as it’s a remarkably cheap form of entertainment and (unlike tv etc) we can keep putting out new content regardless of lockdown. However, I REALLY feel for all my friends in trad pub. It’s going to be an awful year for physical books, and given the way the publishing industry works on super long lead times, the whole pipeline for the next three years will be badly affected too.

I think the big trad pubs will have to do a very, very fast pivot to cheaper ebooks to stay afloat. It’s going to wreck havoc on employment in that sector though.

[mountainkiss]

Thank you for posting this. I'm reading more, but don't have children. Also, I'm rereading a lot of old favourites because it's very safe.

[dewline]

The havoc is already underway.

[cmcmck]

Oh Noes!

I caught teh tranz from a rainbow!

Who knew?

[andrewducker]

You're all part of the gay agenda!

Google Knows...

[dewline]

...and this is going to wreak its own havoc, isn't it?

Re: Google Knows...

[andrewducker]

Of some kind, I'm sure.

[conuly]

Google knows if everyone is actually staying home or not

They see you when you're sleeping, they know when you're awake, they know when you've been bad or good so don't be evil, kiddies! Sleep tight!