Author Solutions

Barnes & Noble announced Wednesday that it will enter the self-publishing business this summer with the launch of PubIt, a digital publishing service that will make it simple for hopeful authors to sell their books and content on its Nook e-reader.

One annual end of season rite is upon the publishing industry: when chief executives take stock of the year that was and look ahead to the one to come. In year-end letters to employees, interviews to newspapers, or interviews with DailyFinance, publishing CEOs exhibited a mix of grim acceptance and cautious optimism that 2010 will be a better year than this one.

When romance publisher Harlequin announced last month it was getting into the pay-to-publish game with a new imprint, it hit a real raw nerve. It unwittingly exposed that in publishing, money always talks first -- and the money is increasingly flowing toward the pay-to-publish model.