This is Part Two of a multi-part series on publishing. Part One of this article can be found at No one warned the Dinosaurs. Will Anyone Warn the Publishers?

The major publishers have gone from being the dominant players in the book business to a point where they can...

As of December 7, 2009, short stories by Christopher Buckley, Edna O'Brien (and by January Curtis Sittenfeld, and presumably many others) are available on Kindle, courtesy of a deal with the Atlantic Monthly. Links to the short stories will appear on the author's pages on Amazon.com, exhorting "Buy it now!"

She kept 300 snails as pets. She drank a quart of gin a day. She considered robbery worse than murder. She left the United States to live in Europe because of what she called "the Negro problem" -- by which she did not mean discrimination against Negroes, but the civil...

Recently, I discovered a young adult author through a literary agent on Twitter. Her name is Bridget Zinn. Bridget recently had two of her novels sold at auction to Hyperion/Disney. For those who don't live in the literary world, this is an amazingly big, gigantic, wonderful deal. But there's...

What's More Important Than Oil?

That's the question I first asked myself which led me to write "Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization" (Harper Collins January 2010). I had read Dan Yergin's wonderful history of oil, "The Prize", and began contemplating what other natural resource might be...

When I hear the term Kindle I think not of imaginations fired but of crematoria lit. And when I hear the term "hi-tech" I think not of helpful androids efficiently performing household chores or light-speed rockets gliding seamlessly through space but of the fact that between 1933-45, modern technology was...

Integration (AKA "growing up") is the new frontier for me these days, and it has been showing up in so many different ways:

-- Working mixed with fun
-- Service mixed with self-care
-- Sex combined with profound connection
-- Practical "root chakra" considerations seen through the...

I love Christmas. I always have. Not the day itself so much as the build up: the lights, the carols, the decorations, the parties with family and friends. When I began working in children's book publicity at Houghton Mifflin, I was thrilled to be on "The Polar Express" team. The...

We Tired Americans

Every decade deserves an iconic novel. The drinkers and brawlers of "The Sun Also Rises" (1926) defined the Lost Generation, just as the wanderings of the Joad family in "The Grapes of Wrath" (1939) sketch a cruel map of the Great Depression. Cynics might suggest that Twitter...

"Here is my secret...what is essential is invisible to the naked eye"
--The Little Prince

I grew up with a Swedish mother and a Hungarian stepfather both of whom had a powerful aesthetic. She was emotional, raw, and dramatic -- she was an actress, after all. He was still,...

The following is an excerpt from The 50th Law, adapted for HuffPost.

In the present there is constant change and so much we cannot control. If you try to micro-manage it all, you lose even greater control in the long run. The answer is to let go and move...

There is almost nothing about the state of the world that doesn't seem a little rosier with good holiday music playing in the house. As I write, Bob Dylan's contribution to yuletide cheer -- his new album, Christmas In The Heart, is on and makes me smile. Next week at...

"Can you help me find that new book on corporate seppuku?"

The Borders clerk wanted to be helpful. "You might find it in business." She thought a moment. "Or in our suicide section."

"Thanks. Did you folks really get rid of your New Non-Fiction table?"

I had noticed about a...

As you read this, Dr. Jacopo Annese is slicing up a brain. Not just any brain, but the brain of Henry Molaison, a man famous for his inability to form new memories after he underwent brain surgery in the early 1950s. Dr. Annese, a San Diego scientist, is digging into...

Stephen King's latest novel is titled Under the Dome, and at 1074 pages in length, epic it is. This book is also King at his best. He creates a setting of good versus evil, and then introduces a large cast of characters to bring the story to life. It is...

I have recently discovered that much can be learned about the gun control issue from an unlikely source: Amazon.com.

I suspect I'm not the first author to be preoccupied by the "customer reviews" posted on Amazon. After all, they are the first, and most conspicuous, indication of how a book...

INSIDE LARRY & SERGEY'S BRAIN
By Richard L. Brandt
Portfolio, 244 pages. $24.95

'Searching and organizing all the world's information is an unusually important task that should be carried out by a company that is trustworthy and interested in the public good."
--Larry & Sergey's...

Christmastime has landed like a fat guy dropping from a chimney. Scrooge is at the multiplex, Santa's at the mall, and Mannheim Steamroller is crushing everything in its path. Christmas lights are shining, carols are playing, good cheer is cheering, warmth is warmthing, all is merry and bright. And it's...

Pirsumei nisah, publicize the miracle. That is the command to put the Hanukkah menorah in the window. It is not enough to have light you should be moved to let others see the light. That is the same logic that mandates that we begin with one light and add another...