Was it easier to get a book published before the recent onset of mass-digital (mostly self) publishing? It may depend on the type of book. Media celebrities, no matter how vacuous, seem to have no trouble getting book deals with mega-publishers. If, like the rest of us, you start out as an unknown, then you have to demonstrate to agents or publishers that you have on your flash-drive the next Harry Potter series, or 50 Shades of Gray. A tall order indeed.

I’m not sure how this situation measures up to the not-too-distant past, when a plethora of publishers and agents, mostly based in New York, might have looked at a manuscript and, with judicious in-house proofreading and editing, decide to take it on, under the premise that–if not the next multi-million-dollar best seller–the process of setting up the plates for a limited run might at least yield a modest…