The Greeter Welcomes Bookselling’s Apocalyptic Future

A reader writes in, Re: the following from PW Daily, surely I’m not the only one who finds the second paragraph unsettling….

Augusta, Ga.-based Harbor House is now handling its own distribution after three years with National Book Network. Associate publisher Carrie McCullough will be selling the national accounts herself and will be using independent jobbers to reach independent retailers. McCullough hopes to hire a national accounts manager before the end of the year, and says she will re-evaluate Harbor’s approach to the indie market in six months.

McCullough just completed the publisher’s first sale to Wal-Mart, with the mega-chain agreeing to carry the upcoming novel The Greeter. The book, due out in April, is described as an inspirational story of a small town that is connected by Wal-Mart and its greeter. A first printing of 10,000 is likely….

(Interestingly, a search for The Greeter on Amazon.com doesn’t turn up anything from Harbor House. It does, however, turn up a book called What’s Wrong at Wal-Mart?: Is America’s Greatest Success Story Going Down the Tubes? by “Avis-The Greeter.” Seems some greeters aren’t as inspirational as others.)

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