the demise of book publishing (again)

Yet another article on the imminent demise of the American book publishing industry. How many more of these will we have to suffer before it actually occurs? How many of these will we have to read before the "expert" truly touches on the real problem? This article starts out promising enough, with the thought that the main issue facing book publishing, and books being published today, can be directly linked to the reader (see the Oprah debacle for further proof of this), but then the author just falls into the pat theory of the problem being about publishers being taken over by foreign companies. Frankly, there would probably be less of an industry here in NY if it weren't for all the foreign investors and companies ensuring that American publishing continues. It's not because of "synergy" as he believes. It's because books don't make money. Period. They never have. They never will. There is nothing "cyclical" about the business. Making books doesn't make money. They're expensive to produce, from the paper to the shipping (only the editing is cheap, ask anyone who earns a paycheck doing it). And Wall Street can't stand that. What synergy has to do with anything, I can't possibly guess at. Certainly the issue of no readers - or as Weiner points out - no readers of Updike or Roth or Dick and Jane for that matter is central to why there is little or no interest in books in this country. It's why there are millions of readers up in arms about a "phony" memoir that they would never have heard of if they didn't keep their TVs turned on all day. I thank whoever that there are foreign companies out there who keep American publishing going. Now, if it's the influence of foreign companies on American culture that is of concern (I can't imagine that would be the case), having worked at more than half-a-dozen companies myself, I can say with some confidence that's not something that has ever been of any kind of concern with regard to everyday business and considerations of what to publish.

Readers. We need people to read. To care about books because the words touch them, and not because some celebrity tells them the words should touch them. We need people to appreciate the turn of a phrase and construction of a sentence. That problem, will never be fixed, it's just not in our culture on a mass scale, it really never has been. And, it's even unfair to blame TV and Oprah (in general, I think Oprah has done a good job in getting people to read, what disgusts me is the "mass personal experience" she creates with each title), the only true American bestseller has been the bible, and please don't get me started on that topic tonight.

American Book Publishing's Synergy Trap