When Will There Be Good News?

As I sifted through the stacks of newspapers that piled up over the week, it all added up to some pretty depressing publishing news (as for what's going on in the rest of the world, let's not even go there). First I read this NY Times story about price wars, which notes that Wal-Mart and Amazon will be offering new hardcover releases at $8.99 this holiday season. This is, in so many ways, a new low.

"Publishing as we know it is over," John Grisham's literary agent, David Gernert, told the...