Bookshops, ideas and DMZ

In past few days, there have been reports of the new Dan Brown being the fasting selling title in hardback since J. K. Rowling. But the question is does it help the book trade in the long run? The title has been discounted so much, the shops are not going to get full value from it. The hope is that the reluctant or infrequent reader will be gripped enough to want to read other titles. I’m not sure that it is going to work like this. What if the buyer just wants more titles in the style of Dan Brown and then loses interest? How do you get these buyers to get into the habit of browsing? And what happen to all the readers who followed Harry Potter? Have they all just vanished into the ether again?

Making good progress on an idea I want to have got to a good stage by World Horror Convention in 2010. The thought has occurred if I should try this for November Novel Writing month. But I do want to get down the one that I had been planning for a while. At least I would then have some of it down. I can always wait until December to do the newer idea.

Read the first 3 volumes of the graphic novel series ‘DMZ’ which were ‘On the ground, Body of a Journalist’ and ‘Public Works’ by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli. It’s set in a New York which has become a no-mans land after a second American Civil War. It’s an intelligently written account of life in a war zone, with a cynicism that’s post-Afghanistan and Iraq. Defiantly worth reading.

Starting to look for my mother’s birthday presents. At some point it does become difficult to buy for people. Either they have everything they want, or they just get what they want already.