The authors' dilemma

From British thriller writer, Matt Hilton:

Like many other mid-list authors I’m fighting a losing battle to get my books onto physical bookshelves these days, and instead of seeing the numbers of my books growing in availability I’m finding that fewer bookshops now carry them than when I was a newbie on the scene a few years ago.     There’s no single specific reason why this has happened, but you can count in the fact that there are fewer bookshops on the high street these days, that many of the supermarkets have cut back on the number of lines they once carried, and that many readers are now turning to Amazon to feed their reading habits. But then you have to also look at the way that the chain bookshops have largely turned their backs on supporting the mid-list authors.

Full blog entry, here.

A lot of what he says applies to the U.S. as well -- and to writers in all places on "the list." It's a bit of a downer, actually, but it's also unfortunately accurate. The changing ecosystem, and the continuing recession or recession-like economy, has made it more difficult for creative artists in general, and writers in particular, to make a decent living.