with a series of balloon flights lifted off paris. another spectator said this is fun but what use couldn't be? he said what use is a newborn baby? [laughter] but he is right. we don't know but some are quite useful so we invest as we should do with science spin. >> chair of the biological sciences department here at colombia. his book is called a durance. there is also a website associated with the book.

. . d and jim mill yent has always worked there. it's amazing accomplishment in the age. jim milliot is coed or it of publickers weekly opw found in 1872 it was trade library begans, book sellers and literary agencies. jim is. the of pw x yz. jim has been with them for 19 years studying as a business and news editor. topics he covers today. prior to joining pw he was executive editor. which jim served as editor. jim is a regular contributor to

several industry publications in the book industry groups. but without further adieu i turn the stage to jim milliot who introduces who introduces -- ever changing world of the book business. jim? [applause] thank you for the great introduction. i feel like i've been in the book industry forever. a lot has changed as at the rapid pace. i guess we'll introduce the fellow panel lists and the people from working with us the last little while. we appreciate you all staying, we hope what will be the grand fanal finale. i think we have a good group of representing the industry. filing in one by one here they are.

so, lissa muscatine, co-owner, with brad graham, of politics & prose book store her and her husband bought almost a year ago. before acquiring the business, she was involved in journalism quite a bit and government. she served in the obama administration as director of speech writer and senior adviser to secretary of state. she was senior adviser her on hillary clinton's campaign and cocollaborater on clinton's white house memoir living history. next to her we have sam is the director of he began his publishing at harvard. university of california. he's worked a number of best

selling authorities including el wilson and ohio oliver sacs. representing authors and agents is raphael "rafe" sagalyn, who runs the bethesda, md.-based sagalyn literary agency some of the authors he represents down here in the dc area include dan pink, rick akndson and simon johnson. with all that said. i'm going to start off with a few remarks. tell you about the over view of where things are. we'll hear from each of the panelists. we're start off with the question that every publishers ask at every convention. how many people read their books on a kindle? how many people read their books on an ipad? how many people read pint books? okay. that's encouragerring.

that's where we are in the publishing industry today. i've been around, you've seen a lot of changes nothing like the change that is going on now. at the end of 011, -- 2011 approximately 20% of sales from major trade houses were digital. that's from almost nothing two years ago. most of the houses think that digital account for 30% of the sales. that's the billion dollar question. -- i think it's unquestionably great time to be a reader. there's more books than ever before being published. there's easier ways to get them, for the most part, they're cheaper. that's one for the consumers. i also think it's a pretty good time to be an author.

certainly don't need a big publishers to be published nowadays. there are all sorts of waysways self-publish. a lot of self-publishers have gone on to success either by themselves or picked up by a big publisher including el gray who wrote fifty shades of grey. just to show you how fast it's grown. the most recent numbers we have straibl for 2010 there's about 316,000 traditional books published. that was a 5 percent increase on the year before. there were 2 million nontraditional books published that year. it is a 169% increase. not all of that is self-publish papped healthy chunk of it is. a little bit of time, ten years

ago, there was only 3200 self-published or nontraditional books. someone here can do the math to go to 3200 to 2 million. so it's things like that have the whole publishing industry wondering what's next. it's not really a great time to be a printer or a manufacturer. less books being printed, less work for them. not so great time to be a wholesaler or distributer, seems that the middlemen are being cut out of the process. it's a good time to be amazon. they have about 25% of the book business. they are along with barnes & noble are the only two major places we can buy both both tal digital and print books.

amazon has a tremendous amount of market share clout. they're not not trade to use it. if publishers aren't talking aren't digital in the meeting they're talking about amazon and grumbling about amazon or complaining about amazon. they are aggressive in actually, what, you know, jeff, the chairman there is man tray is lower pricing for consumers. if you get that, he talks to the partners in the publishing business -- sometimes they don't see eye to eye. so he started a publishing business which is another thing that all of the publishers are scratching their heads about and wondering where they're going to go next. so amazon is really the driver -- really the most important player in the industry today.

but one thing they don't no is physical bookstores. barnes & noble is still the largest operator physical bookstores. they have made no intention of opening any more. as most of you probably know, borders went out of business about a year ago. that leaves us with only seminational change. bookings million how aggressive thailg be is anybody's guess. that means we're going to have new books stores probably going to come from independent book sellers. for the long time, independent book sellers segment had been smashed by barnes & nobles and borders about changes and amazon with on-line retailing and expanding. digital books are, you know, another issue that has to be dealt with. first place, same with buying a

digital book is not the independent bookstore. that may be changing. so but actually, the close of borders, some people think it's a time of resur again of independents. there has been a lot of stories of people going into the business for the first time, and some times even a more healthy side. people willing to buy bookstores. a lot of it has to do with the right spot. with a good owner the independents can survive and thrive, actually. so that's what we're going to talk about today. the book industry as a whole. and to kick off washington to the good time to be a book seller. we're going turn it to least is a. >> thanks for coming. i'm going to start with a little bit of background because some of you might be wondering why anybody in the current climate

would have gone into the business. and my husband brad is over here and i acquired the store about a year ago. during the sale process it gave us a lot of time to go around the country and meet lot of the independent book sellerssellers figure out what was was there a common denominator that pointed to the success. and there is, it turns out. with that said, people turn with oh my gosh why did you get into the business? are there going to be any independent bookstores left. there's a common concern and in the community of politics and process when the store was put up there was a tremendous panic. that's not an overstatement that this wonderful treasured community institution would disappear. but it's important in that context to remember that several times over, in the last few decades, the demise of independent book sellers has been predicted and widely

assumed. and yet, independent book sellers have remained, obviously some have closed. some have been eaten up by the online coloss sis and by some of the big box stores. in fact, and patches some of you may know opened her own bookstore. others are sprouting up in other places and so, we feel pretty foolish about this. i think the question is really how can independent bookstores like politicspolitics pros has been successful to continue to survive but thrive in a -- and bookstores don't make as much money on those. we sell them. we sell physical books and e-books. go to our website you can download them on anything but an original kindle. it's proprietary to amazon.

which is another story. when people are turns to other kinds of devices to read. what we've learned in the first year is that a i among other things, bookstore owners around the turn out to be extremely creative. most of our colleagues who are succeeding in the business are doing smart things to succeed. the main thing they're doing is realizing that if the physical books becomes a smaller share of their revenues, they have to i did fors i have their extremes. they're selling more nonbook items. they're sponsoring more programs, events and such. some of like us, in last fall we acquired a print on demand machine. and jim was mentioning the nontraditional publishing format. there a lot of people in the washington area who maybe just written the world's greatest novel or greatest cookbook and

they can't find a publishers. they come in the store and we can publish it. they can print in five minutes from an inventory 8 million books that are out of print. that's a service that bookstores are provide the around the country. why do all of these strategies work? just to give you an idea what we've done at our business. we have become known, i think, as many of you know for the authority events that we host. we about 385 year. it's and have able position. it's because of the demographic of washington, d.c., and the kinds of people who live in the area who are engaifnlged in the brings and the lit rare world and the journalistic world. that's great source for us of community building. it's obviously a source of book sales which we love. we love the connection with authors and pub listers. other bookstores are trying to do more events. we have established a very full

and rich array of courses literary related courses. they're filling up instantly. we didn't know how it would turn out. we've been extremely are pleased to see how many people in the community have a hunger for that kind of learning. it's a great thing to bring people into the store and have them take courses and classes. we're going to be response or the literary tours overseas. you can look on the website and get more information. the other thing that i really think has to be pointed out that not only do we have the community -- one of the things that distinguish us all the independent bookstores. they are physical locations physical locations experience that can't be replicated online or quite as well in a big box store. if you come into our store you might be see the chief buyer and one of the gems of the book industry. he'll talk to you for a half an hour about your book tastes and preferences. he'll understand. he will have read the book. it's not an online something

tells you if you like book x you might like book y. it's a real human being. we often say that our store, and i think other independents feel it's more than a bookstore. it's a gathering place. a communitity yum where people can exchange ideas and have topics about the books of the day. they can hang out. this is a very important point. you can't brows and discovery online the way you can in a bricks and mortar bookstore. i can't tell you how many times i've been at the cash register, which is one of the favorite parts it's like being a bartender. you get to hear what everybody is thinking. i said if you find everything? the person has a stack of and they say i came in for one and i'm living with ten. it's an extremely part of the

experience. it differentiates independent bookstores from other models. we have a different model which involves deep community roots, community building, engaging with people directly, and providing experience inexperience can't be the same. ..

>> often not understood, and that has to do with, although we don't represent a huge percentage of overall book sales, obviously amazon and others controlled more of the percentage, we do have a disproportionate influence over what we call mind share. we are not as big and market share, but we do have mind share. what that means, if mark recommends a book or thinks that an offer -- author is terrific that really matters to the publishers, the office, the rest of the book world. it means other independent bookstores are going to be interested in that book and author. they may be promoting it more, and what has been discovered, and the data is now being produced to support this. independent bookstores drive sales across the industry, not just our own sales. they drive them across the industry, so we really represent a important economic piece of

this book ecosystem that should not be overlooked. and that might share peace is extremely important to authors and publishers and, frankly, to consumers who want affirmative knowledgeable people telling them what books are helping to shape literary references, and that is one of the things that i think independent bookstores do the best. so, i guess to some up, we feel confident. we note that physical books are going to represent less of our overall revenues. we do find that there are many ways to remain true to our essence entry to our mission as a great independent, local bookstore. we are not compromising that at all. at the same time we have found ways to build on that foundation, figure out ways to draw people in in different ways and prepare ourselves worthy of its relative physical books there represent a smaller share of our business. that said, i just want to point

out that for r stork the-books represent less than 1 percent of our sales. so we are finding that our leaders either just love the physicality of the book, on a computer screen all day and don't want to be on another screen cuddle up in bed with whatever device it is. and -- were they are hybrids which is another thing that is starting to be demonstrated. people who read e-books, a lot of them free physical books, and it depends on the situation. we are feeling pretty good. we have a great group of independent bookstores across the country. we encourage everyone to support your bookstores. one of the reasons we are there is because of our community and our deep roots in the community, and we hope to be there for a long time. thank you very much. [applause] >> okay. great. now the publishing point of view.

>> i would like to say that politics & prose is why i still love publishing after all this time, about 40 years' worth. in europe probably wondering what publishers actually do. you just heard a description of the ecosystem, and it is an ecosystem. it is heavily dependent upon marriage went from both within and from outside, diversity is critical to the evolution as a traditional book publisher, i looked at the arrival of the books as a species, it's kind of unsettling. the fact of the matter is that we are now publishing the trend 55 and 70 books a year. since 2000, made 2007 we have been publishing each of those in an e-book format as well. and they are, as jim said, a rising percentage of our overall

revenue. i would say that the downside is that friendlies the next five years i would see our brand sales probably declining by about 10 percent every year. so we have to make that up somehow. but back to the question of what publishers to, when we work with literary agents and we see things coming over, our job is to take this material and evaluated and shape it, find the author's voice and make it something that you want to read. it is so easy just to throw anything out there these days because of the mechanisms are available. but what about the contents? and it is all of the contents. when the books arrive and someone on the floor who is talking to a customer knows what the book is about, knows it is making a valuable contribution

and they can recommend it as a purchase. that is the best kind of synergy . going forward, i think that barnes and noble do a lot of things very well. probably going to find a brick and mortar equation harder and harder to sustain. they're not opening more stores. i think it will begin to retreat from their expensive leases. i would love to see those stores franchised to individuals within the communities here know what readers want. i think it is a brand field that is realistically optimistic. a great time for independence a step ben. amazon can be a bit of a bear. they are there 24 / seven, but they don't lead you to make critical choices about what you read. that's why it's so important to

have independent review, the washington independent book review and other sources to inform your reading. it may only a firm, but it can certainly introduce you to new books and authors. that is terribly, terribly importance. what else to run need to add here? all right. yes. the big picture, as jim pointed out, the number of baskets in which publishers can put their precious eggs has been reduced with the rise of borders and lots of other factors. the things that keep me up at night, saying the possibilities of one company just becoming very, very large and having a huge amount of control over the prospects. investment.

really give kindle competition. that is really terribly important. thank you. [applause] >> all right. the authors as well. be here today and speak to you. i think we were asked materials before we were given over the last week to try to give a five to ten minutes summary of the state of the book industry. well, that is a pretty impossible task, but i thought i might try to tackle that by citing what i think of the two great revolutions that i have seen in my career. i have been a literary agent, the buffer between the writer and the publishing industry. i've been doing this from d.c. since the 1980's. the first revolution really, the reid to revolution.

1980 that the growth of bonds and noble, the growth of borders, the growth of of the bookstores, independent and chains, those of you who have been in washington all remember, the drug retailer said discount bookstores, create a revolution in bookselling here and across the country. the effect on writers and publishers is really significant because of the publishers were expanding in almost all categories, fiction and nonfiction to meet the increasing the opportunities in the retail level. so this is a great time literary agents, a great time for writers . there were very few barriers to entry. publishers could not get enough books. and that was kind of the environment for 20 years that i

was doing this. and a very good time to be a writer, a very good time to be an agent. that all turned in the last five or two years. that all turned dramatically, and i would say that that really was the second great revolution. the first one i would characterize, we were living in really what was called a seller's market. a very advantageous thing to be on this side of the negotiation table. and over the last five years it really, the tide has turned. details have shifted. the demise of borders was punctuated as the second revolution, and that was when it really had become a buyer's market. the publishers are cutting their lists. the demise of borders captain percent of the marketplace. what does that mean? all through the chain of publishing, that means they're calculating smaller first printings. and all through there, you know,

mechanisms, and talking random house, simon and schuster, mainstream publishers, mostly in new york. everything really changed. various interest or very large. publishers were always speaking about that dreaded word, platform. what is our platform as an author? meaning, what is your ability to get on nbc, and as nbc, the cable channels. what are your opportunities to your own network to promote your work. now, the other, you know, simultaneous trend as we all know, was the device of -- demise of review media. how many republications, tabloid's standalone review sections. now there is one. so there are all these changes. really, this is what i call the second great revolution. and coming in the middle of the second great revolution was this thing called the e book revolution.

so i think we're actually at the beginning of something new and different, which we are all grappling with the reader of trying to get our hands around, and we are all -- very few people have a handle on what is coming next. but at this moment, at this moment it is a very, very good time if you have a platform, if you have a great book could yet, if you can overcome the barriers to entry that publishes a throwing out the books are selling very, very well. the success is a great indication of that. the e-book revolution. they generally are selling one or two, one to five for every ten or 15 physical books the you're selling in certain categories. i could tell you, i have two of my office on the new york times the desperate best-seller list which is a fascinating development. take a look. the new york times best-seller list. many categories, one of which is

e-book only. one example, one of my office, an extraordinary thing about north korea. the new york times extended list for for five or six weeks for every three hard-cover books they're selling to the books. near parity bit in the fiscal but in the book. that is a revelation. robert reischauer, adjusted his first original called beyond of rage, three months turnaround. the reality is e-book sales are still remarkably small.

>> of will to fight to continue. keep up. to sell 10,000 copies of any-but is considered very successful and certainly puts you on the best-seller list. so i would just -- this part of it by saying, the annual book convention, it's two weeks from now. last year, an annual dinner with four very close friends, top editors in chief of public to the publishing houses. he spoke here last year. he was speaking about the we are at a very revolutionary moment and publishing. very easy access to the market. very difficult and complicated access to the retail marketplace , publicity and marketing. we are about to have to revisit what the last year was like. one other thing i would like to

mention, and every want to raise one "and i can't help but bring evidence to the discussion, an interview that the new york times did about amazon. this was last fall. he quotes a guy named russell brand, one of the top executives who said, ," the only really necessary people in the publishing process now of the up writer and the reader. think about that. the only necessary people in the publishing process now of the writer and the reader. fascinating if you consider that is amazons few. think of what who is not included in that process. that is for sure. >> and most of the colleagues. what about the editor, the copyeditor, the designer, the proofreader, the literary agent, the publicist.

access to market needs publicity. you need all of these people to be on your side. it is that kind of business that we iran. and if that is one of the great questions that i think amazon racist. >> terrific. [applause] >> i would like to raise an interesting question, especially in the consumer marketplace. the tension, i think, between how the publishing industry views @booktv eight to use the term legacy publishers, the big six in new york. what might be out there for consumers because it is more books than ever before available. how you find those books is not easy. amazon only as a surgeon -- they have so many books, with the can

only sell a few at a time. accessibility is a huge tax phrase. how do consumers discover books. that is why i would argue top publishers, e-bus is built around it. they helped push books of marriage, and they also help create best sellers. the debate going again. he a great. a pretty big best seller, e-book normally. no way period's 2 million copies sold for first book. that is sense, you know, random house took it on. so before we turn it over to questions i would just like to throw out a couple of things to the panel. how do you see publishers reporting independent bookstores now? is there anything that you can do? >> well, i think, it is a matter

of collaboration with specific others. we have a wonderful local of the and washington d.c. who is here. graciously hosted by politics and prose. a very successful event and i believe played a part in our ability. that does a good thing. >> anything publishers can do? >> well, it's a good question and one we wrestle with all the time. in fact, booksellers around the country. there are a lot of things. we would like, for example, to have a sort of greater recognition of the value of mind

share, the influence that we bring, the fact that we drive sales across the industry because of our choices, because of the expertise of territorial abilities of our booksellers, the fact that we do a lot of promotion. as he was just saying, can really catapult a book or an author. so that will drive sales in other parts of the country, drive sales across the industry. and it is typically being viewed that independent bookstores for sort of rated by their ability to sell books in their stores. a collective group, our influence is much greater on the mind share proposition that does have economic value to publishers and authors, and we would like to have a greater-it -- definition of that value.

>> the of this got titles or symbols, and that sort of thing. >> the fascinating question. the fundamental question, price point. if you're familiar, it's a special part of amazon. and i have a lot of conversations. they are generally under 10,000 words. hard to know what the board is to describe them. $0.99 to a dollar 99. to 99. generally you will sell a lot more copies and lower the price point. all writers are asking about that. from my vantage point as a

literary agent that is not their first and foremost ambition. >> well, a big debate in publishing. how long can the fights go, and will the unit rise enough to compete with the downward pressure. early members are i would say next. it's really not clear that you can make up what you're going to lose. but a few minutes of questions, time for questions. so fire away. >> hi. i have a simple question. this book fair motivated me to study the website and kid here at 10:00 a.m. how helpful is this book fair or others like it?

>> well, it depends what you're looking for. i think this is a great microcosm. >> not to me. not to me. >> and kate. >> a lot of would-be riders out there. well, there are lots and lots around the country. and that think there are over 60 riders here that helps build. writers love to meet their customers'. they are important. publishers obviously help support this and help to arrange to get this 60 publishers, of this year. politics & prose is selling a few bucks. so, you know, it's one of the pieces. publishing is made up of a lot of pieces. it is amazing what takes place the million know, to sell an

accomplice that. and it should be looked at literally every week millions and millions of books to being sold. sometimes, especially in mainstream media you hear about the demise of the publishing. it's really not the case. is not going to go the way of music which is something that a lot of people like to draw parallel. sales are flat. so angry. >> indirectly. my question directly deals with the background expertise of the panel. i would like to ask, and if it does not really pertain have a step back. i am a retired educator of local schools here in the area. the one thing i stress, stevens is the points. read, read, read. and now, you know, with the

e-book revolution, i think it is fantastic, but i look at the entire student, he is a person. and am looking now at the fact that this individual who spends hours and hours on something called screen time, okay, tv, movies, the whole game he has in his pocket, the laptop in the schools now, which in time will be like a textbook for everybody. and then the e-book. i know they are tremendous advantages to that. i wonder, go to a billable, and you will find out that the main effects would be the physical, mental, a social. now, this is my child. to of one to fall into a category of getting these negative effects. you might say, sorry, there's nothing we can do. that momentum is there and it is going to go on.

that phone booth out in the court to -- corner. it's gone. >> does anybody want to tackle that. publishing industry, everybody in it is keenly aware that their is a competition for eyeballs, if you well, with everything that you just described. it is something that we think about a lot. try to make it more likely. that is one aspect. the other aspect, and everybody can address it, the definition of what a book is. because there is enhanced e-book links to media, links to audio, applications to law whole new kettle of fish. the whole new way of reading.

but the definition of a book is not what it is going to be. and, you know, i would agree with you also, one of the things that publishers have to do in the industry is to try to keep pressing forward. >> ideally i like the printed page. less distraction. all the devices have these moments where you can duck out. that is one of the great things that having of his new book your hand. that rate will not run and you can turn the page when you want to. you guys are changing faster than we are. is up to us. even the libraries have make technological innovations.

>> i just want to add one quick point from the advantage of a regional business. this is obviously true. people are increasingly with all sorts of things, but you should come by our store and go to our children's department and see the vast number of kids in their reading physical books looking for physical books, enjoying physical books, wanting -- reading a book is a sort of tactile experience. it is not like listening to music on a different kind of device. i think that tac toe experience is sort of like the oasis from the crazy world around us. to some people that is a refuge. the other thing i will say, we also have a lot of young booksellers. they tend to be hired out of college or graduate school. never seen a more passionate, devoted group of people then this group of young people. if you have doubts about whether

young people love reading his books stop in and talk to some of them. >> you underline it. you look at it. it says something. underlined, but it is not the same thing. okay? is not the same thing. right in the corner. i can do it in an e-book to, but it is not the same thing. an old-fashioned map, in your 70's, forget it, you are gone. i accept that. >> i read in the new york times or authors are now being posed to publish two books yearbook. i know my reading time seems to be less and less as i get busier and busier. how am i -- why the press? to bucks a year and especially when there is a problem getting

reviewed. >> and i as to your favorite author is? a favorite novelist, for example? >> sarah prestige is one of mine. >> wouldn't you love to have one from her twice a year rather than twice every three or four years? >> once a year, yes, twice a year, possibly keep up with all the other authors that i want to year. all the other new of this i discovered, events like this. >> well, part of that, again, shorts. part of it is the settlements. there are a lot of readers out there in genres. rieders, you know, the root reid of one book a date. so that is what they're thinking is. also to try to go back to the earlier point, to keep eyeballs

on the book and not let the mind go somewhere else. >> the justice department was suing dual. >> apple. >> apple. right. why have they not looked at amazon with its anti-competitive practices ended strongroom in a publisher's. do you have a clue that you can impart? >> it is easier to answer why they sued apple. they saw in many ways an old-fashioned price-fixing case. all of a sudden e-book prices are now 1499. there is no -- well, 95% of publishers, the justice apartment is crazy, they really

do. but why can't you go after and was done? you can't really prove it. an easy case to make against apple. how far to actually go, i don't know. ammine -- i mean big mellon is fighting it. it will be an interesting battle >> one of the big challenges of our time. you did. a lot has to do with pricing for >> it is all about price. and that -- that is the case. how can you say this is good for consumers when prices went up? well, the short term, maybe that is true. maybe it's not. and the long-term it will be interesting to see as has been mentioned here, what happens if amazon is 55% at the market three years from now.

>> well, can i just add one thing to that? i really appreciate your raising the question. it is almost ironic that the justice department in going after apple and the publishers is doing so in the interest of antitrust and preventing a monopoly. the fact is, when this so-called agency model went into effect with the prices went up across the board for e-books, amazon had at that point, before that model went into effect, but 90 percent of the market. when that model went into affect their percentage went down to 60 percent, which suggests greater competition in the marketplace and a broader array of people doing the selling. so, somehow in the interest of intent to have in the monopolistic practices, they may be creating the biggest and most dangerous monopolistic possibilities out there. that is one thing. the second thing, and this is something that we and many other

independent bookstores are very or read about. people love that amazon gives lower prices. why? in part because they don't collect sales tax. where is that sales tax go? hospitals, roads, schools, police, fire. we believe that is part of our role as a member of the community. amazon does not have to play that role. we believe that they have therefore been given an advantage in the marketplace. the playing field is not level. legislation being considered in congress to remedy that, which a lot of the independent books, not just what sellers, lots and lots of retail businesses across the country are very much in line. so, you know, these are all things that concern us greatly about -- the way that they go about their pricing, the fact but they don't collect sales tax and contribute. the fact that we believe there will be much less competition and it could be much worse for consumers in the end if it turns

out. >> one last question read here. front-row. >> i just have a general question. in the motion picture business there is a rating system. in the book publishing business there is no rating can tell if the book is appropriate for certain ages. >> i think that their is a significant devaluation system, which is one of the great things and social media. don't you think that the book websites provide for reader comments from a great deal of assessment that would be useful to reduce? >> but when you walked into a bookstore and up in a book you have no idea if the book have things that are not appropriate for certain ages. >> that's why you have people who could help you answer those questions.

>> that is part of the wonderful thing about the bookstore. you can walk in and may not be going in for a specific book and find something new you had no idea was even out there. >> and as i mentioned before, there are millions of books published each year. i mean, compared to motion pictures were there are a few hundred, it is almost impossible to do what you are suggesting. again, that is why bookstores are important. what is available and what is out there. we have one more. >> noticed any trend as to the quality of writing that comes primarily from print books worry books jack and is that becoming obvious? >> lead to a lot more people writing. i don't know it is producing more riders.

we could routinely receive manuscripts that don't come for another literary agent that are upwards of 250,000 words, 300,000 words. probably the skinny but that they're trying to get out. it is our job to figure out. and we routinely have of those under contract for a book of 85 to 90,000 words return in many ships of 195,000. a tough decision to make. publishers, very labor-intensive . no margin enterprise. >> well, i can take both sides of this. it is to the question of what makes with the most sales. it often is the reputation of the well known elements of the

author more than the writing capabilities. that is true and has always been true. i am a firm believer that quality does break through, absolutely. >> thank you a lot. [applause]s cleanly shaven, looe

an innocent, nice guy. had a gray shirt on, long-sleeved shirt that came down to his wrists. he was in a silver opal, opal were apparently cars that everyone in iraq drives and no one in america knows about. but again, the suspicion was raised when i realized the back of the car was a little lower to the ground than the front. and given the rules of engagement, you can't just shoot someone because they looked suspicious. well, sir, scott, why did you

shoot him? well, i got scared. you got scared? so you killed a man? well, yeah, sir. like, i have a gun. like, you can't do that. and given the rules of engagement, you can't just shoot someone unless you know they have the weapon, you know they're aiming, or you know that they've been -- they've killed someone or they're in, i should say, they're in the action. so given the rules of engagement, i couldn't just shoot someone that looked suspicious. so i knew the best thing to do was to yell at him to get out of his car. so as i did, i was looking over my left shoulder kind of facing him. i was in the lead stryker vehicle, had metal basically up to my neck, i was inside the stryker standing up. i still had my m-4, my oakley m frames on, i was looking cool. had my kevlar on. doing everything that i was supposed to do.

looked at him and said, hey, get out of your vehicle. and i knew he heard me because he looked over his shoulder straight at me and raised his hands off the steering wheel and then put 'em back down. nothing happened. i was like, okay, well, maybe he understood or maybe he's saying i don't know where i am, i'm lost. i didn't know. so i yelled at him again. he raised his hands up again off the steering wheel and shook his hands no and let his foot off the brake. i then had to make a decision. so i shot two rounds in front of his vehicle with my m4 and, boom, my world went black. i woke up a week or so laettner walter reed army medical center, my life forever changed. my world went black not only physically, being blind the rest of my life, the shrapnel had cut my left eye in half, entered the

frontal lobe on the left side of my brain and metal went through my cornea and taking out my optic nerve. i saw nothing but blackness and was told by the ophthalmologist that you would never be able to see again. so my life went physically black. that day. but it also went spiritually black. i no longer believed in god. everything that i'd done, everything that i believed in now no longer meant anything to me. i remember one of my best friends, edward, coming into the room. i think it was before one of my surgeries and said, hey, scotty, why don't you say a prayer? i said, no. i don't know how to pray, and i don't know god. and i think it, the room went dead silent. like if there were cockroaches in the room, you would have heard 'em. my wife went back to her room realizing, you know, i'd been married to an awesome man, and i

still am, and i'd be fine married to a blind guy, but being married to someone who didn't believe in what he believed in before, that was something different. so she began to pray. friends began to pray all around the world. and for me it was a choice that i had to make. it was a personal choice that i had to make. i knew i had support. friends would come into my room on a daily basis singing christian songs. i know doctors thought our room was creepy because balloons would be coming out, i thought the room was huge. apparently, it was like a little match boxcar. but it was that support. but again, it still came back to me. i was the one that had to make a choice. i was the one that had to choose to make a difference. my company commander called me every other day to see how i was doing. we were awesome friends. my brigade commander would call me every week to see how i was doing. something that doesn't normally happen in an