Make that three steps

From the New York Times, an article called "Self-Publishers Flourish as Writers Pay the Tab." The lede:

The point may soon come when there are more people who want to write books than there are people who want to read them.

A bit later:

Meanwhile, there is one segment of the industry that is actually flourishing: capitalizing on the dream of would-be authors to see their work between covers, companies that charge writers and photographers to publish are growing rapidly at a time when many mainstream publishers are losing ground. (Emphasis added)

The whole article is worth reading.

Two more steps toward the end

Teaching Publication Arts at this moment is a strange experience: every piece of news about the industry seems a sign of decline. Two more such signs:

• The Washington Post is discontinuing its Book World as a special section in the Sunday papers. (This hits me especially hard, as I grew up in the DC suburbs and read "Book World" every week.) Possible positive sign: "Book World" will continue as an online entity, apparently.
  
• Sara Nelson, Editor in Chief at Publishers Weekly, has been laid off. Is anybody safe?