#AvailableAlmostEverywhere

As I've been reading about Amazon's latest volley, one refrain keeps scrolling through my brain: "That could be me next year, that could be me next year, that could be me next year." When giants clash, it's usually the little guys who get trampled, and in this industry, there is no one littler than the debut novelist.

Douglas Preston and Stephen Colbert are going to be just fine. They're well-established and can easily reach tens of thousands--if not millions--of readers. But when you're a deb...