The Borders have Fallen!

So Borders (the bookstore) has filed chapter 11 bankruptcy. Borders has announced that the payment to publishers for books ordered before yesterday will be tied up in the bankruptcy business. The orders from after the filing will be paid. They also say that the stores that remain open will continue to operate pretty much as normal.

But the publishing companies may be less than confident in Borders right now, so I've heard some speculation that there might be fewer of each book and a slightly reduced selection. Hope not.

Since publishers wont be paid, authors might have some trouble being paid too (even though the publishers should really have pay them unless they got a really fucked up contract), and here's where my dilemma begins.

I'm the kind of bookgeek who goes to her favorite authors' signings and reads their blogs, (in my defense, these are some people who know how to write and communicate well, unlike the majority of the internet). I'd like to buy their books in a context where they will actually get paid, rather than having the money dump into some black hole of courts and tax people. I also love Borders with a strange unholy fire. Not really, but I really do like my local Borders.

Assuming you're like me, what should we do?

If we buy from someone other than Borders, the publishers and authors definitely get paid, but Borders will continue as a sinking ship.

If we buy from Borders, we can hope that the book we buy was ordered after yesterday. But even if it isn't, buying from Borders helps them get out of this gigantic hole they've gotten themselves into, and that's good for the industry as a whole, right? Not having a gigantic Barnes and Noble eating Borders' entire market share and crushing all in its path? Yay competition?

I have an additional issue:

There is a book I want that is available on the Borders site and on Amazon at a discount (>50%). This discount is not available at the store. Should I buy it online? Or should I pay full price to Borders to do a tiny little part to help since I do actually want it to stay afloat?

I suppose that 15 or 30 bucks really isn't going to make a huge deal either way. My book, being expensive and hardback, means about a dollar something, maybe, to an author. Yeah, it doesn't make huge deal... sort of like in that way where a vote doesn't really make a huge deal either way in the US government... Stand by your choices and up for your beliefs, fellow members of the masses!

I think I'll buy discounted off the Borders site. Yay Borders. *hug* Hopefully, the price difference only reflects the price of overhead and the costs of running a brick and mortar store, and the publishers and authors get paid eventually. And I think having more than one gigantic book superstore is a good thing for the industry. Competition's healthy. But more importantly, AMERICAN. >:O

...
:D