Is Publishing Dead?

[Henry]

http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/12/12/book-publishing-authors-oped-cx_lo
_1212osborne.html 

Fair Use (FU):

A Writer And Reader On Why Book Publishers Fail
Lawrence Osborne
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"Publishing was, she said quite gaily, possibly on its last legs and who
knew where the poor old-maidish behemoth was headed. The trash can of
history? That phrase is perhaps a sweet description of the Internet.  

I remember being mildly terrified at the idea of entering a book-free world
somewhat like Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451. But that was more than 20 years ago
and publishing is still with us, like some doddering, cultured aunt who
smokes and drinks and refuses to kick the bucket. 

Needless to say, it--or is it a "she"?--is still in crisis. She is always in
crisis, the way that people suffering from emphysema always have coughs. But
is she now in terminal super-crisis?

This December, bad things happened in publishing. Harcourt announced it
would buy no more books, which is like a car manufacturer announcing that
car manufacturing is henceforth suspended. Doubleday seemed to disappear as
the bloated and byzantine Random House restructured itself under the beady
eye of German CEO Markus Dohle. 

Word has it that they pinned too many of their financial hopes on Andrew
Davidson's breathless psychodrama novel The Gargoyle, for which they had
paid a modest $1.2 million advance. Sound a little insane for a book
advance? Come now, writers need to eat, too, especially in a recession. And
it was dwarfed by the $6.8 million recently paid to Tina Fey or the $5
million or so dished out to Tom Friedman for his latest work."

Henry Mu

http://www.urdomain.us/kcuf.htm