In terms of what I want to find the answers to, I'm still super confused about that shelf of trashy romance novels in my local used bookstore. The question that I used to have regarding them when we first talked about money vs merit in publishing wasn't which side they stood on ($$$), but rather how it even fulfills that role. Who buys them? Do they actually generate enough revenue to cover production costs, company operations and employee/author wages? The books didn't seem like they were in a series, yet all were extremely similar in the layout and book design, sort of like James Patterson but under a company brand rather than a personal brand.
Now after listening to our guest speakers, I'm even more intrigued on how those novels got out into the world if its up to distributors to move them from the publisher to retail stores. How do they get stores to buy those? Like other products, I can only see retailers buying something if they expect it will sell, but I can't see how any of those attract anyone. They're generic and won't appeal to the people who buy tabloids for celebrity gossip, but also embarrassing enough that I can't imagine people reading them in public. Do distributors do a bundle deal or something to sell them to retailers? I really need to buy a few of them next time I'm home, wondering how accessible the company's financial statements are to the public.
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