The blurb on the back of the book would lead me to believe that it was right up my street - "Everything you wanted to know about the book business but were afraid to ask. Even I, after 40 years of writing, found this an eye-opener. Publishing, bookselling, 'should I open my own bookstore' it's all in this entertaining, biting book - Eric Carle".
My problem with this book is the over detail. If it was 60 pages less I'd probably have been more taken. The author goes into such florid descriptions of the past that we probably end up knowing what he had for Breakfast on every day of his blinking career. He also drops more names than a Chinese phone book. The unfortunate thing as that I, as someone with no knowledge of the American Publishing industry, haven't got a clue who he has just name-checked. He writes in a conversational style - the only problem is that the conversation he is having is with Hank Wittenberger, the ex-CEO of some long defunct American Bookstore Chain.
At 33, I am young enough to have been caught up in the 5-minute attention span-Youtube-Youporn era. I need short and to-the-point chapters, infographics, bullet points, website back-up and audio. If the written word hasn't grabbed my attention by the end of the first page of each chapter then forget it. Sad but true.
If anyone reads the whole of "Rebel Bookseller" and can summarise it down to one cue card then please get in touch.
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