I’ve written an open letter to the publishing industry. It is entitled “A Modest Proposal for a Change of Fortune.” The following four articles inspired me to draft the letter.

1) The first article was published in Forbes magazine. The title says it all: How Publishers Can Ready Themselves For Digital Media’s Evolution? The article nicely summarizes what’s at stake. They “need to start thinking of themselves more as publishing engines that can drive content creation, distribution and consumption in an innovative and scalable way. For many, this will be hard and challenging – if not downright impossible.” (Does the prescription sound like what Amazon is doing?)

2) The second article is an excerpt from an article by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.  It argues that writers are undervaluing their talent and should look at writing as a business.

3) The third article is a short blog post by literary agent, Jane Dystel entitled A Sure Thing? It expresses her disappointment at publishers for their “narrow-minded” approach in limiting themselves to signing what they believe will be a best-seller.

4) The fourth article highlights the growing number of indie titles that populate the top of the best-seller lists on Amazon’s site.