Sometimes I miss a unique angle on an article I’m reading for this blog. I must have been asleep at the wheel when writing this post about self-publishing. The New York Times article was about how self publishing is doing pretty well because of so many writers are willing to pay to see their work in print.

Today, I came upon this interesting article from WritersWeekly.com that talks about the angle I missed: The CEO of self-publishing company Lulu, Robert Young, had some interesting things to say about his company’s own customers:

Indeed, said Robert Young, chief executive of Lulu Enterprises, based in Raleigh, N.C., a majority of the company’s titles are of little interest to anybody other than the authors and their families. "We have easily published the largest collection of bad poetry in the history of mankind," Mr. Young said.

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Self-publishing has long been the bastard child of the publishing industry. That could be changing now. More and more authors who self-publish are finding success after traditional publishing houses offer lucrative contracts for their self-published books. And most of these cases, the manuscript in question was rejected over and over before the author took matters into his/her own hands.

That is the story of Lisa Genova, who tried to get her book Still Alice (aff link) into the hands of agents and publishers before turning to self-publishing. Her story, in part, is featured in this article from the New York Times about the world of self-publishing:

When Lisa Genova, a former consultant to pharmaceutical companies, wrote her first novel, "Still Alice," a story about a woman with Alzheimer’s disease, she was turned down or ignored by 100 literary agents.

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Online retailing giant Amazon.com will stop selling ebooks in PDF and Microsoft Reader formats, according to this article from Publishers Weekly. This means that all ebooks sold by Amazon will be either in its proprietary Kindle format, or the Mobipocket format.

Amazon.com has notified its publisher and author clients that it plans to cease offering e-books in the Microsoft Reader and Adobe e-book formats. In the future, the online retailer says it plans to offer only e-books in the Kindle format (for wireless download to its Kindle reading device) and the Mobipocket format, both of which are owned by Amazon.

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One facet of ebooks that still mystifies me (and many others, I assume) is how ebooks are priced. When I’m shopping around for a good book to read on my trusty iPhone or Sony Reader, I’m always amazed at the large span of ebook pricing – from free for public domain works, to around the same price as a hardcover for a new release and/or bestseller, and everything in between.

I find it interesting to see what others think of this problem as well. I came across this interesting post from a blog called Brave New World. Here’s a brief snippet:

Some may say that publishers are trying to reduce the digital margin given to resellers and using this to offset their digital costs. Others would argue that there is a reluctance to get dragged into the current discounting fiasco on physical books that is rife in markets such as the UK. However, given that the ebook is often a carbon copy of the physical book with no extras what is the price comparison with it and the price to the consumer?

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There’s really nothing new or surprising from Publishers Weekly about holiday sales from the nation’s two largest booksellers: Barnes & Noble and Borders. I got my usual email update yesterday and in this article, PW said sales were bad for both booksellers:

Store sales fell 5.2% at Barnes & Noble in the nine week holiday period ended Jan. 3, dropping to $1.1 billion. Same store sales at the nation’s largest bookstore chain fell 7.7%; B&N had predicted that comp sales would fall between 6% to 9%.

By most accounts B&N is still in pretty good shape with an impressive balance sheet, good leadership and tight control over spending. Borders fared a little worse over the holiday shopping season, which only seems to add insult to injury to the chain after a year of ups and downs:

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My email inbox this morning had the usual weekday email from Publishers Weekly, and it was chock full of news from the two largest booksellers in the US, Borders and Barnes & Noble. Now that the holidays are over and we are into 2009, many in the retail industry are probably taking stock of the dismal holiday shopping season and going into "survival mode" for the foreseeable future.

Let’s start with Borders first. It appears from this article that the struggling retail chain will be getting some new blood in management:

With its stock price trading below 50 cents and holiday sales down by double-digits, the Borders Group’s board of directors has replaced CEO George Jones with Ron Marshall, a retailing veteran whose background includes overseeing the turnaround of Pathmark and the Nash Finch Company. Marshall also held management positions with Crown Books and Barnes & Noble college stores.

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I have always been told, no matter I do in life, to never put all my eggs in one basket. This applies mostly to investing money (something I do very little of), but can also apply to jobs, hobbies and many other facets of life – even writing! I always hear that writers should write a variety of material to keep their minds fresh, but also so they don’t become dependent on one particular genre or one particular market.

The publishing industry, on the other hand, must have been "on vacation" the day they taught the lesson on not putting all your eggs into one basket. At least, that is what this article from the Wall Street Journal appears to suggest.

The worry is that such big-name titles represent only 20% of total retail sales, says New York literary agent Laurence Kirshbaum. Unless readers also embrace mysteries, romance novels and other genres, the literary landscape may grow much darker. "You can’t have a party only with hors d’oeuvres, you need the whole meal," he says.

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Another story dubbed as a memoir has been revealed to be false. But this time, the story itself has been around for a while, since the Holocaust to be exact. The story is the love between Herman and Roma Rosenblat, who claimed to have met while Herman was in a Nazi concentration camp:

Oprah Winfrey once dubbed it the "greatest love story" she had ever heard: a boy held at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II and a girl on the outside who tossed him apples to keep him alive. They eventually married and grew old together.

According to this article from CNN.com, Mr. Rosenblat confessed this past weekend that the story was made up. A book deal that had been in the works was immediately canceled:

Berkley Books immediately canceled publication of Rosenblat’s memoir, "Angel at the Fence," which was set to be released in February.

"Berkley will demand that the author and the agent return all money that they have received for this work," Berkley spokesman Craig Burke said in a statement.

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Sometimes people propose ideas that just make you shake your head and wonder: "What are they thinking?" Strangely enough, a lot of these ideas come from our own government (sarcasm!).

The state of New York has proposed one such idea: Tax ebooks and other digital content. I heard about this idea before, then read about it today on this post over at the Teleread blog. The consequences of such a tax could be devastating to the budding ebook market:

The New York insanity, if enacted into law, could lead to more taxes of this ilk in other states and add to expenses for small e-booksellers. It could even encourage piracy by jacking up costs for legitimate buyers.

Both points made in the above quote are pretty scary. First, once one state enacts a stupid law like this, others are sure to follow in a domino-like effect. Second, the tax will force prices to rise on all digital content, which will probably lead to more problems with piracy.

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Yesterday I received my new copy of Poets & Writers Magazine (aff link), something I look forward to 6 times per year. As I was flipping through the pages, I noticed something that had grabbed my attention before – a majority of the ads appear to be from various MFA programs around the country.

Yes, there are a few ads by small presses and a few writing services sprinkled in those pages, but MFA programs dominate a lot of the magazine’s ad space. And, along with the magazine, I received a solicitation to donate to Poets & Writers. As I understand it, the donations help to support the various programs that PW offers to fledgling writers.

What’s my point?

While everyone is hurting nowadays because of the crummy economy, literary magazines have always struggled. PW appears to do well compared to some of the smaller publications that rely soley on subscribers to make ends meet. Even then, very few are lucky to break even and most just stay in the red.

If MFA programs are the only ones advertising in the larger magazines, then that well probably dries up pretty fast. There’s very little fresh blood keeping the literary magazines going in terms of revenue streams.

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