Publishing, Promotion and Pain

James Adams, writing in the Globe, has a fun article on the travails of writers sitting helplessly back and watching in mute horror as their publisher fails to properly promote their latest book, while publishers vainly try to explain that they're doing everything they possibly can given budget and time constraints.  (The piece has prompted what I think is safe to describe as open-mouthed astonishment over at Y-Eh!)  Adams nicely captures the frustrations of both writers and publishers as they try to come to grips with (a) a publishing industry in the throes of a major structural realignment, (b) a fragmented marketplace, and (c) seemingly nobody having the faintest clue what to do next.  The comments at the Globe story are well worth a read, with contributions from happy authors, unhappy authors, self-published authors, publishers and the occasionaly grammarian.