The next chapter

Borders officially declared bankruptcy this morning. Not exactly unexpected.

(Industry story with other links here.)

It's another part of the (mostly) slow motion destruction/restructuring of the book industry. The immediate effect on most writers will probably be negligible, but it's certainly going to add to the difficulty of making a living at it. All of the big publishers are owed millions and millions of dollars - Penguin/Putnam/Viking etc. tops forty mil - and even though they've seen this coming for a while, the decreased revenues and sales are going to have to be made up somewhere.

The thing that has always confused me, however, is the fact that the Borders store near me is always packed, with a long line at the cash register. If I didn't know any better, I'd think it was the most successful store in the world, let alone the mall.