Super Thursday!

Well, guys, today is the day. It's the first day of October. It's also a Thursday. But not just any Thursday - today is the day that the publishing world has started to refer to as "Super Thursday," referring to the unofficially declared launch of all the titles us publisher have been stockpiling for better holiday placement.

Today is the day that 800 new - yes, NEW - titles go on sale. Eight. Hundred.

According to the Guardian article, this is three times the number of titles usually published for the beginning of the holiday season. Does this strike anyone else as a bit desperate? I can almost picture the editors and sales people getting together and saying, "Ok, if book sales are down by 50% percent (that's a made-up number, for the record), we just have to double the number of titles on sale to make our budget for the holiday season." Right?

Well, maybe not. My concern is that with so many new titles, too many will be glossed over and eventually forgotten. If you see ads/reviews/displays of 4 books you want to buy for yourself and for holiday gifts, for example, I would argue that there is a pretty decent chance that you would by at least 3, if not all 4, of these titles. If you see ads/reviews/displays of 12 books you want, well, now we're looking at a lot more money in a much more uncertain time. Even if the 8 unpurchased books go on the "to-read-later" list, well... we all know how quickly that grows and how stubbornly it refuses to shrink.

What is more, there is a significantly lower chance of any consumer actually seeing any publisher's advertising and publicity efforts, because the whole holiday market has suddenly become so overrun with titles that unless you are Dan Brown, JK Rowling, or Mackenzie Phillips (hey, she had a 10-year affair with her dad, and sadly, that's what sells), you don't have much of a chance of making a splash.

I certainly hope that this is overly doom-and-gloom on my part, and that this mad rush of books brings in so many people to bookstores that sales are up and everyone is in the black and books are booming. Only time will tell. In the meantime, prove me wrong and buy everyone on your Christmas list a book this year. Everyone.

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