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It's true there are scams a-plenty out there in the "publishing" world. Some are worse than others. Some are pitched more cleverly than others. Some are downright creepy. Caveat emptor (buyer beware) is the coin of the realm in recognizing and resisting these scams.

On the other hand, it may be a mistake for all writers to assume that the traditional route of publication through so-called "mainstream" publishers is the only-or even the preferred-way to go in all instances. It's also a mistake to always yell SCAM when an author invests in his own project. I have been involved in the music "business" even more than in the writing business, and it's been instructive and sometimes even humorous to watch publishing following the music route in so many ways.

Years ago, what used to be known as Record Companies began to shrink and/or merge into a handful of music" conglomerates" and we see the same thing happening to book publishing in recent years. Only a handful of "big boys" remain. It may seem like there are more, but that's only because each of the few remaining big publishers often have a half dozen or more "Imprints" for different genres or sub-genres. You will need to find an agent to even get a partial reading from these publishers and you will have spent a great deal of time and some expense to get that far if indeed you ever do. Most writers won't. Most musicians won't get major label contracts either, but many have found alternative ways with the Internet and other new technologies to have at least some modest success and sometime more than that. Has it involved some investment in themselves? Yes.

Another similarity between the music and publishing worlds is the way publishing has begun to mirror the same "message" the music industry has been harping on for years: "We want hits, only hits, and nothing but hits. If we don't hear your "hook" in fifteen seconds we will smash you CD to smithereens!" The analogous message we get from book publishers and agents these days is, "If your book doesn't cut to the chase until chapter two, throw away chapter one." In other words, accept that you must tailor your work to an audience with an ever-increasing attention deficit disorder or you will NOT be a player.

That's fair enough; publishing is a business and a crippled business at that. There is no longer any room for what used to be called a "mid-list" of books that might not have mass appeal but were deemed worthy of publication and worth the risk of small returns. A

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