I am a middle-aged book collector. For a long time, I was the young guy on the gay mystery collector scene. As we get older, the friends I’ve made are starting to unload their books as they downsize their collections and possessions. The wonderful thing about that is I am the first person they contact about selling their books to, but the bad part of my friends downsizing is I am the first person they reach out to.
As a bibliographer, a librarian, a collector, and reader, I spend a lot of time in mystery groups on Facebook, and the one major refrain from authors is the lack of publishers willing to take on new talent. Same with literary agents. Only the hottest and biggest names are picked up for publication by the major five, and even the smaller independents are getting ever more picky about who they will publish. I understand slightly their hesitancy; they’re a business. Why take a risk publishing a nobody author who may cost the business money when they can keep churning out the same huge authors.
