I would love to see a discussion between you and Barry Eisler about the future of publishing. Eisler, who writes really good spy fiction, sees the New York publishing houses to be in a death spiral and, recently, turned down a $500,000 contract to self-publish. He firmly believes that he can hire better editors, copy editors, book jacket designers, publicists, etc, than he would get through a traditional publishing house. And, of course, the turn around time between finished manuscript and product in a reader's hands (or, more precisely, on their e-books) would be minimized.
In the end, he didn't self-publish his latest novel. Amazon saw him as a great test case for their new publishing effort and offered him a deal, which he took.
He writes a lot about the new world of publishing at blog (www.barryeisler.com). See his "For Writers" section, and his (free) e-book "Be the Monkey".
You're both really smart about your craft and your business, but have different perspectives. It would be a fascinating discussion for those of us who care about book.
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