Book Chain Makes Make Books by Hand

Stop the presses -- the ones still operating -- we got us a scoop: Borders is hand-selling books! And it seems to be workin. Front page material, maybe above the fold. Hell, we can make our reputation with a story like this. We gotta flesh it out though, so let's go ask some experts what they think about hand-selling.

Here's what Goofy Gomez thinks: "I say bravo to them for giving hand-selling a chance. It's a time-honored method of putting the book that corporate officers have chosen into the hands of customers. It's worked before. There's no reason why it can't work again."

And here's Tara Taradiddle: "Usually books just sit on the shelves at the chains. This new program just might cause them to leap off the shelves. It's got brilliant written all over it. It's a great way to extract money from publishers too."

Of course, Wayne the Overdistributor is happy: "We've been over-distributing books for years without achieving the desired results. This new program finally gives us the opportunity to justify the quantities we've been shipping."

Bucky Bookles seems guarded but generally pleased: "When we publish books we have no idea what's gonna happen to them in the market place. It's nerve-wracking. At least now, we've got some sense of what one account is doing. It definitely helps. Kudos to them."

We finally track down the Dean of Book Industry Pundits, Professor Strohfresser, who gives us this gem, "What's old is new, what's good for the gander is good for the goose, what goes around comes around. I like it, I like it. This is the book business, it's all about re-invention, innovation, and issuing press releases. It's endlessly fascinating, this industry of ours."

Great stuff. Endlessly fascinating. We have our story, poot. I think we're on our way.