Wednesday 7 January 2009

Wild West Monday - Monday March 2nd 2009

Gary Dobbs in his blog on The Tainted Archive has set the date for the next Wild West Monday.
It is better to read his blog for more information.
For one, I will be out there again because I believe that it is time that bookstores stopped dictating what we read. To me a bookstore is a place that sells books - and that it should cater for all tastes - that is the purpose of a bookshop.

In my interview with Michael D. George he mentioned that books shops no longer catered to the masculine genres.
I still agree with that comment.
So I'm going to change genres for a moment.
Where are the war novels?
Sure, you can buy war books in the non-fiction section but where are the war novels? There was a time when Robert Hale Ltd published war fiction but that market dwindled away to nothing when book shops stopped selling them.
The horror writer Shaun Hutson cut his teeth with war fiction; as Samuel P. Bishop he wrote the three 'Track' western novels again in a climate when the western was fading from the shelves.
So if you don't want the same fate for the western then, please, do something about it.
Nothing happens, in this world, unless you allow it to happen.

4 comments:

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

They have a handful of sven hessel in my local borders but that's it.

David Cranmer said...

J.K. Rowling was rejected by twelve(or so) publishers because they didn't feel there was a market for a boy wizard. What a mistake that was. If the material is good and the public is given a chance to buy they will... I'm glad you and Gary are highlighting this issue.

Scott D. Parker said...

Now, y'all know why this date is perfect, don't you? That's Independence Day for Texas. The date when we signed our Declaration of Independence from Mexico. Every year while at the University of Texas, we gathered at the main tower and celebrated.

I'll help y'all.

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

Scott - I had no idea. That's fortitude.