simon and schuster

Beginning as early as the end of the week, 6,000 Borders employees will be out work, and publishers will likely lose millions of dollars in bad debt. Hardest hit will be "midlist" authors -- those whose books aren't bestsellers but still do well enough to justify their publication.

Random House and top literary agent Andrew Wylie have settled their fight over his plans to publish e-books of older works from big name authors he represents. But while the battle is over, the settlement announcement raises more questions than it answers about the future of e-publishing.

Move over Oprah. Fox News host Glenn Beck has turned into a literary tastemaker -- and his book picks are yielding staggering sales figures for the respective authors.

The publishing industry was stunned yesterday when long-time Simon & Schuster publisher David Rosenthal was shown the door. Now what lies ahead for the embattled house?

The New York Times regularly breaks embargoes to reveal excerpts before the book's release date, angering rivals and publishers. The paper's deal with an airport bookstore chain may be the secret to its access ahead of competitors.

When should an e-book be published? Before the physical copy gets published, or months later, or at the same time? Publishers must increasingly weigh tradition against the tide of consumers who want to read their e-books when they want them, and on any device they choose.

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.

Any publisher worth its salt will tell you that the real money in the business doesn't come from the current bestsellers by Stephanie Meyer and James Patterson, but the backlist: that deep catalog of books that were published years ago. Titles like J.D. Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye...