Publishing Doldrums

What is going on in the publishing world? I do understand that there is a fear of the power of Amazon; there is fear increased by the collapse of Borders in the UK and worries about the success of a new model being tried for our other main bookselling chain, Waterstones. I now know that in the UK only really well-known authors, or those books that look as if they might be extremely commercially successful, have any chance of being published at all at the moment. Publishers are scared witless (for want of the word that first came to mind) by the effect on them of e-publishing.

How similar that is to the attitude of US publishing houses I cannot say. But I am really depressed by the news that a writer like Slavenka Drakulic - author of 'S' and 'Frida's Bed' is now being turned down wherever she goes. She has therefore resorted to self-publishing on Amazon Kindle for 'Flesh of her Flesh': an account of having a kidney transplant where the kidney was donated by a total stranger. The book asks what sort of person is prepared to give such a gift. Slavenka Drakulic was told that there would be no commercial interest in this subject. Truly, I find that hard to believe.