Two developments of note:
A good article about agent-assisted publishing and Amazon’s White Glove program. This seems like the next logical step for literary agents, and it’s one that should make authors wary. Rather than pay 15% of your income for the length of the contract, it’s much wiser to commission a flat rate and itemize your expenses. Outside of ancillary rights to your material, I’m unclear what value agents add to the equation, especially if they’re providing services that you can perform yourself (for free) with minimal effort.
Last week’s big publishing news was that Amazon purchased Goodreads, which is a very smart investment on their part. I personally prefer GR over some of the other major book sites, such as Library Thing or Shelfari, some of which Amazon already owns. The consensus seems to be that rather than developing their own book site (see the underwhelming Bookish), major publishers should have bought Goodreads years ago. Now Amazon’s also-bought recommendations will be scary accurate.