The recession’s got me depressed, or is it the depression’s got me recessed?
Recession, depression, whichever way you slice it, times in the publishing business ain’t so happy. It’s just too darn quiet and we can no longer blame the presidential race for hogging all the media time. It’s all about cutting back, finding ways to stretch our dollars, shivering in our boots about our jobs.
It’s real life. And, sometimes it’s scary.
We try to put in practice some of the things we read. Keep a positive attitude, keep a smile on our faces. Act “as if.” Maybe if we keep our spirits high the law of attraction will reward us with abundance. Doesn’t that sound nice? Tell that to the people at General Motors, or all the laid off folks at Rodale or Citibank.
The upper classes are feeling the pinch that we down lower having been feeling for five years. (Only in their case, their multi-million fortunes may now just be mini-millions.) Our budgets stretched beyond reason with gas and food prices going off the charts. One friend puts it pretty accurately, “we’re working twice as hard for the same money.”
At least, those of us who are still working. And, however we regarded the unpleasant nuances of our jobs, we’re now all appreciative of every little unpleasantry, annoying coworker, any piece of work we thought was beneath us. I think God’s hearing a cacophony of prayers from people he/she never heard from before. When they’re not praying, they’re giving thanks. Good time of year for that.
Everyone’s got religion all of a sudden.
Our hope in the publishing biz is that people will regard books as still one of the most worthwhile gifts one can give for the impending holidays. Books are a nominal investment, cheap to ship, easy to wrap, and certainly have meaning to many of us.
Buy books. Keep the industry alive. Do your part.
Buy some from your local independent. Buy some from Barnes & Noble. Borders and even amazon. Everyone needs your book bucks now. But most importantly buy books from HCI. Just kidding.
Sort of.
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