Midlist Authors

No one knows exactly how many books are published in the United States every year. Bowker, the leading provider of global book information, estimates 288,355 print titles were published in 2009.

The digital book age promises to deliver an endless assortment of titles with the click of a mouse but also portends to destroy the economic foundation that supports a large class of writers known as midlist authors, the triple-A minor league players of publishing.