Jonathan Karp, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Twelve imprint, discusses the impact of “disposable books” in yesterday’s Washington Post. You can read Karp’s piece right here. (Oh, and writers everywhere, prepare to cringe while reading Karp’s opening paragraphs. You’ll never hear the word “mulching” quite the same way again…)
I’m one of those who’s still skeptical of the ability of self-publishing and print-on-demand to really compete — meaning with a truly viable product — in the publishing industry. But I share Karp’s hope that a wider availability of materials will start to sway publishers toward higher-quality books, rather than their perpetual wooing of the latest flame.
An alternate view, courtesy of Bookslut, will run later this week.
Brian Jay Jones 
There are so many reasons why few self-published books can compete with commercially-published books: the lack of good editing, the lack of proper marketing and sales support, the poor quality of the design… I could go on.
Mulching. It’s more than a lot of books deserve, and eventually, it happens to them all.
Jane
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