Publisher said/Librarian said. . .

Only Connect points me to a very good article from Library Journal about the current challenges and frustrations of publishers and librarians, and how often they are at cross-purposes. As a library rep, I frequently see both sides and I absolutely concur about how often publishers forget this very important market, not just in terms of sales but in building readers and the excellent word of mouth recommendations that librarians offer every day. Not to mention that they are tremendous readers themselves. And as the article notes, they know that "Our most avid readers are connoisseurs of the midlist." It's exactly for these reasons that the Dewey Divas were formed and why for the most part, we don't focus our book talks on the bestsellers.

I also had to chuckle at the opening lines of both the editor and librarian overviews of their jobs:

"The next person who tells me, 'Gee, I wish I could read books all day at my job,' is going to get a punch in the nose, seriously."

Ahem. I've heard that one too. But no, we do all our reading in our spare time.