Selling Books.

Novelists, poets, and writers of nonfiction plied their craft in the 1990s pretty much as they had since the invention of movable type, but the business of publishing and marketing books evolved at a pace that left industry analysts wondering if these were the best of times, worst of times or, more likely, both at once. While there was no shortage of writers clamoring to see their work in print, and readers continued to buy books, the industry found itself in a crisis. Commending a book to the printing press had always been an act of faith for the publisher. Unless the writer could be persuaded to pay the costs of printing out of pocket, publishers risked a substantial sum of money producing books that might never sell. Of course, publishers advertised and tried to persuade bookstore owners to stock...