Yet another reason why, so often, self-publishing is the way to go.

Every author wants to work with a major New York publishing house, and no author I've met would turn down a publishing contract from, say, a Random House or a Penguin. That said, there are so many circumstances under which authors should, and do, self publish their books. The news from Bookseller.com about the fact that John Wiley is laying off 45 employees in the United Kingdom just drives the point home.

According to the article, Wiley hasn't yet disclosed (or perhaps even decided) which of its 45 employees will be out of work. But let's say that you're a Wiley author. One of those 45 employees could be your editor. Another might be your in-house book publicist. You could be editorially "orphaned" and left without a book promotion campaign all in one click of an accountant's mouse (provided the accountant in question isn't the one who would have been signing your royalty checks).

It's discouraging for authors to rely on publishers. When an author/publisher relationship goes swimmingly well, life can be fantastic. But when a publisher is facing economic hardship and making changes that can affect their authors, perhaps it's time for those authors to think about self publishing their next books. And perhaps, whether or not their publishers are downsizing, it's time for many authors to consider hiring their own outside book promotion firm. Publishers all seem to be putting less money into book promotion these days...which is not something that authors want to hear, but unfortunately, it's the truth. For now. Better times are coming, I have to believe.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt passes...but don't take it personally.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has just passed on all publishing manuscripts ... but don't take it personally. It's strictly an economic decision. While HMH will focus on publishing (and, presumably, promoting and selling) books that are already in their "very robust pipeline," the executive editors have orders to decline all new manuscripts until further notice.

So says a November 24 article in Publishers Weekly which starkly paints the bad news: This will be a "not-so-merry holiday season for publishers."

Well, okay. Times are tough. But that doesn't mean authors have to sit on their butts and lament the fact that no one will buy their books, or that their publishers don't have the budget to promote the books they've already sold.

Authors can self-publish, and it's not so hard to do. Books, Web sites, and listservs devoted to self-publishing abound. Services like LightningSource and CreateSpace make it possible to get a book into some, or even all, of the traditional distribution channels far more quickly than Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, on its best day, could.

Also, for books that are already in that "very robust pipeline," it's possible to promote a book even if the publisher allocates little of its budget toward the cause. Authors can embark on a self-directed book promotion campaign by contacting media outlets themselves or hiring a book promotion specialist to help.

Publishing and selling books doesn't depend on such major houses as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt anymore. HMH has admitted it. It's time for authors to accept it and move on. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has problems ... but that doesn't mean the world of publishing books has come to an end. On the contrary ... a whole new world of possibilities is opening for us all.

Free eBook, anyone? An experiment in book publishing.

Free eBook download, anyone? Or would you just like to read part of a book online at a really great discount (it would have to be at a really great discount if you only get to read part of the book, obviously)?

Well, they're doing it again. Yes. Two major publishing houses, HarperCollins and Random House, are making some of their novels available online either for free, or nearly for free, to entice people to read for recreation. Here's an article from Guardian Unlimited Books that will tell you all about the experiment.

Is it naive of this book publicist to believe that HarperCollins and Random House are trying a little bit too hard to entice people to read their books? I mean, how many of us who work in, and around, the publishing industry balk at the idea of reading books?

Okay, okay, I know. I've read the statistics, too. People aren't reading now as much as they used to. But do we change people's reading habits -- and, not so coincidentally, do we increase book sales -- by giving away free books?

I'd hate to think we have to resort to giving away the store to entice people to read good books. And what if people just don't want to read novels online? Is that supposed to tell HarperCollins and Random House that novels are dead?

I don't even want to think about what will happen if this book publishing experiment fails.

Here's the good news.

As an author, publisher, or book publicist -- or perhaps all three -- you're a charter member of the book publishing industry. You have a bit of power in your hands. You can use that power wisely or unwisely, and sometimes, good people do both. (The latter, we hope, they do inadvertently.)

We'd all like our balance sheet to be positive, at the end of the day. We'd like our good deeds to vastly outweigh our bad deeds.

The good news for all of us who sometimes fail is this: regardless of how we mess up, we will never, ever do anything more hurtful than to publish O.J. Simpson's confession to a double murder. Nor will we ever tape an interview in which we try to justify ourselves.

If this interview makes you ashamed to be a part of the publishing industry, take a deep breath. I share your feelings. I just celebrate the fact that choices of this sort are seldom made by people in our industry and that this is an anomaly. Hopefully, we'll never see anything like it again in our lifetimes.