As Liz mentioned, the number of banned books has declined this year. However, books about homosexuals – including Butler, Garcia Marquez, and Kenyon’s own Doctorow – are still considered profane. Better yet, Harry Potter is being exorcised by the Vatican:
“Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil,” says Father Gabriele Amorth, the Pope’s “caster-out of demons”.
But we have other things to worry about besides little Ashley Daniels. Apparently Chick Lit is hurting America (confirming our universal suspicion of covers decorated with bright pink and/or shoes).
Lastly, printing on demand seems to be picking up, though it’s struggling with competition of its own:
“Other publishers aren’t our biggest competitors. Our biggest competitor is what people are able to find for free via the search engines,” said Allen Noren, director of online marketing and the O’Reilly editor who helped Hertzfeld on his book.
And even if your work has not been picked up by Google books, remember: those who can’t publish, blog. If you’re not into blogging, you can always pay someone to write a story with your name in it.