Customer service

Something I've noticed is that the ratio of good customer service to bad that I've personally experienced has gone up since this economic crisis. Perhaps businesses are realizing just how valuable every single customer is to their business. Yeah, there's still some incredibly awful customer service, especially at big box stores. However, it seems like the consumer is viewed as an important and powerful resource again by more and more companies. Let's just hope that continues to improve as our economy does.

With that in mind, read this about a boycott of digital books priced above $9.99 on Amazon.

And this one about books for soldiers.

And about the short story published in spreadsheet format where you can add changes.

And this about a mother's memoir of her daughters running away. Probably important research material for my book. :)

I'll tell you something (unrelated to power in the marketplace, to my knowledge, but related to writers and emotions) - I watched the series finale of ER last night (haven't watched ER for many, many years, but I was 12 when it started, so I had to watch) while reading Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge. While I recommend both ER and Olive Kitteridge, I don't recommend double dosing on that much powerful, emotional media.