It's A Hard Knock Life: In an interview many years ago, Nobel prize winner V.S. Naipaul referred to publishing as a "shoddy, dirty, dingy world." Recently, Thomas Hauser published this article about how contracts have gotten worse and worse for authors; so bad that, he argues, they may effective represent restraint of trade. That may be going a little far, contracts can be negotiated.

The fact of the matter is, it's a buyer's market, unless you're a best seller, then it's a seller's market. That has probably always been the case, and not just for books. Anybody entering the world of bookwriting with the expectation that they will be selling like King or Grisham is more of a dreamer than that kid shooting hoops on the schoolyard who's convinced he's the next Shaq.

This entire industry is based on hope. Writers hope to get agents. Agents hope to sell manuscripts. Publishers hope to sell books. Once in while, like in Vegas, someone makes a big score, but typically you just work like a dervish and, with luck, you may possibly break even one day. It's hard to imagine anyone is in this business is in it for the money. I'm lucky to have my day job.