There’s a fascinating article in Business Week on Amazon’s venture into publishing. And the stark terror that’s gripping publishers as an result.

Sadly, it’s hard to argue that the blame for that lies anywhere than at the feet of the publishers themselves. As the article, Amazon’s Hit Man – BusinessWeek, says:

“Book publishing, an inefficient industry if there ever was one, seems ripe for reimagining. According to a recent report by the Association of American Publishers, sales of adult paperbacks and hardcovers fell 18 percent between 2010 and 2011. “

Publishers have leeched off writers for years.

Way back in 2000 I was an occasional reader of a writers’ forum. The forum was focused on book marketing.

Of course, publishers refused to create marketing campaigns for any writers unless the writer was a bestseller, and the house had committed millions in a book advance. They were protecting the money they’d invested.

I was shocked to my core when writer after writer said that they’d organized their own publicity for a book launch, spending not only their entire advance against royalties, but also their own savings (which some could ill afford.)

At first I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Why on earth were these writers bothering?

Since so many writers told the same tale, I assumed that writers were being told to do this by publishers — spend their advance on their own promotions. I thought that was unconscionable then, and I think the same now.

If ever an industry needed a good swift kick in the rear, it’s publishing. There are many wonderful people in publishing. The industry however, in its present state, deserves to die.

Back in the 1990s I interviewed the CEO of a major publishing house for an article. He was congratulating himself on a couple of takeovers. I thought then that publishing was in a death spiral — the entire industry was all about dollars, only. Not that I have anything against people making money. However, sooner or later, the money has to come from something REAL — not about smarties finding clever ways to make a buck. (See Wall St. for the smarties who will kill capitalism if they can.)

It’s time for people who read and and who love books to take over publishing. Whatever form the industry takes in the future, these people will create it.

Kindle Publishing Is Hot: Want to generate cash from your kitchen table and quit your day job?

Others are making money from Kindle publishing. The lucky few are making millions. Some are making great money — and that money increases each month.

What about you?

Imagine generating cash from your kitchen table. You can let Amazon do all the heavy lifting. Amazon’s got a proven publishing system, after all — discover Fast and Easy Kindle Publisher: Turn Free Stuff Into Kindle Cash, and discover four different ways to turn free stuff into Kindle cash.

A subscription to Publisher’s Marketplace is a great way to stay up to date on what’s happening in the world of publishing, including the latest news of book deals – what publishers are paying as advances for specific books.

I love the way Publisher’s Marketplace classifies their deal information. Here’s the key they use:

“nice deal” $1 – $49,000

“very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000

“good deal” $100,000 – $250,000

“significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000

“major deal” $500,000 and up

In this week’s Fab Freelance Writing Ezine, which has just gone out to subscribers, I included the article “Writing Books As A Dream Home Business”. You can see why that’s so by the key above if you’re lucky enough to get a “significant deal” or a “major deal”.

(If you missed this week’s issue I’ll be putting it online at the ezine’s archives site in the next day or two.) The article’s also online for members of my book writer’s site.

Many book publishing agreements are structured as multi-book deals, as you can see from this deal mentioned in Publisher’s Lunch:

Screenwriter Andrew Klavan’s HOMELANDERS, pitched as Twenty Four meets The Bourne Identity; homeless, broke, and unable to find his parents, a teenager has to outrun both terrorists and the law with only a few days to stop the murder of the Secretary of State in a race against time that brings him face-to-face with a master assassin, to Amanda Bostic at Thomas Nelson, in a four-book deal, by Alyssa Eisner Henkin and Robert Gottlieb at Trident Media Group (NA).

This means not only that you should be thinking of your novel as potentially the start of a series, but also that you need to get writing and keep writing. You may find that when your first book sells, the publisher is interested in giving you a multi-book deal; so it’s essential that you have at least an outline or a couple of chapters of your next book to offer.

New writers are always horrified to learn that agents and editors who read their book don’t actually read it.

Agents and editors sample your manuscript, as you might sample a wine… or as you might sample a book in a bookstore.

I love this article – Frankfurt Book Fair – Books – New York Times which says: “Later that night Mr. Stein arrived half an hour late to a dinner party of editors and agents in their 30s. Laurenz Bolliger, an editor at the prestigious German publisher Berlin Verlag, pulled out a manuscript he was considering and asked for Mr. Stein’s opinion. He looked at the first sentence, flipped to a random page and deemed it a word unprintable in a family newspaper.”

If you want to write a book and sell it, realizing that it’s a billion dollar business can give you perspective.

With luck, it will inspire you to write the best book you can right now, knowing that your skills as a writer will improve with every book you write.