Book Publishing Not Quite Dead, Again

Recently Garrison Keiller published the New York Times Op-Ed piece “The End of an Era In Publishing” which discusses how self-publishing will irrevocably change the publishing industry. His somewhat tongue-in-cheek assessment prompted Minnesota Public Radio’s MidMorning program to devote an hour to discussing the topic of whether or not book publishing as we know it is dying. Both are worth checking out, although anyone who has followed the industry and the supposed demise will already know the basic trajectory of this argument. Taken in context with recent articles like “The Math of Poetry” (see our May 10 post called ‘Do the Math’ for a link to the article) it is clear that an underlying concern is the disparity in supply and demand. The number of aspiring authors far exceeds the number of readers, in part because writers are not readers. This, along with the diminished role of editors makes for a free for all that can be liberating but also creates a huge spectrum of quality.  You do the math and tell us what you think. We are listening…