On Forbe's tech site today, Sramana Mitra thinks publishing is "archaic beyond belief, it's an industry that treats its most important asset--the author--badly," and is wondering how long this can go on. Mitra brings up some good points in her commentary about how, after retailers, shippers, distributors, agents and houses take their share, there's little profit per book left for the author. However, she has a business plan for Amazon.com to change all that:

"Let's say, in the new world, Amazon becomes the retailer, marketer, publisher and agent combined and takes 65% of the revenues, offering 35% to the author--we end up with a much better, fairer world."

It would be fairer as far as authors making more for their hard work, but will the media that shuns vanity publishing step up and review those books?

Lately I've been enjoying two very different works of nonfiction by two very different young, talented ladies. One, 'He's A Stud, She's A Stud,' by Feministing.com's Jessica Valenti, is a handy reference guide to "49 double standards every woman should know." And the other, 'Have You No Shame' by Rachel Shukert, is a memoir by a lady who has had to deal with adversities as varied as growing up Jewish in Omaha and fishing out what the back cover politely terms an "errant feminine hygiene product." (It's not a chapter you'll soon forget.) Being a woman can be quite tricky, is the overall conclusion a reader of these two books might draw. Here are my favorite lines from each book:

"Have you ever been sitting by yourself -- reading in a park, drinking at the bar, whatever, and a guy comes up to you? What the fuck is that?" -- 'He's A Stud, She's A Slut'

"[My vagina] smelled like that smell that hits you sometimes in the subway, so fetid, rotten, and overwhelming that you know that you're in a place where the body of an enormous rodent is currently decomposing, or a homeless person has recently been naked." -- 'Have You No Shame'

I highly recommend both.

In yesterday's Facebook Book coverage on Daily Intel they admit "we gave up reading books a long time ago, if you hadn't already guessed." Well, at least they're still covering books. According to Daily Intel, The Facebook Book is "the No. 166,530 most popular book on Amazon overall - apparently funny books about the Internet aren't a top-selling genre. Why? Because that's what the Internet is for." It's surprising after The Gawker Guide To Conquering All Media tanked that publishers are still doing web to book deals. There have been some standouts such as The Alphabet of Manlieness by Maddox and I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max so we'll be keeping our eye on Gotham's I Can Has Cheezburger based on the popular LOLCat site to see what's what with this trend.

Bob Morris used to dole out delightfully crotchety etiquette tips in the Sunday Style section, but like many people who are great at telling other people what to do, he was less than expert at dealing with his own problems. Like, for example, helping his widowed dad find lasting love -- while searching for a suitable match for himself at the same time. But everything worked out ... well, I suppose you have to read the book to find out how everything worked out. Bob not only answered my questions, he included bonus advice on how to look good in your online dating profile picture.

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Karen Knows Best just alerted me to news that after two years, Millenia Black resolved her lawsuit against Penguin. At issue was that once Penguin bought her self-published The Great Pretender and discovered that Millenia was black, they wanted to market it as an African American title, even though her romance novel featured white characters.

According to Karen, "Millenia argued that being categorised as an AA author, would limit her sales potential, as her book would be shelved in the AA literature section, rather than the general lit section. Penguin ignored her, so she was left with no other choice, but to sue."

On her blog, Black writes "I'm very pleased to share that the matter has now been resolved to my satisfaction through an agreement, the terms of which can never be discussed. In the interest of my blog's archival integrity, I fully disclose that all previous discussions about the case have been removed. There will be no further information about the lawsuit on my blog."

It appears two terms of the resolution were to purge all mentions of the suit on her blog, and never to discuss it again. This is an unfortunate side effect of the digital publishing age where you can erase a history, or even rewrite it. I would have liked to read this story from the beginning on her blog.

Isn't it weird how, sometimes, a good review can make you not want to read a book? That's what was happening to me with Michiko Kakutani's review of Joseph O'Neill's 'Netherland.' Oh, great, I was thinking. Another 'coming of middle age' story. And it has resonances of 'The Great Gatsby'! And the narrator starts drags himself out of a depression via sports -- cricket -- and a friendship with a "charismatic Trinidadian entrepreneur and storyteller." Oy.

But then I read this, from the Times' excerpt from the first chapter, and decided to suspend my probably-dumb prejudices.

"Now that I, too, have left that city, I find it hard to rid myself of the feeling that life carries a taint of aftermath. This last-mentioned word, somebody once told me, refers literally to a second mowing of grass in the same season. You might say, if you're the type prone to general observations, that New York City insists on memory's repetitive mower—on the sort of purposeful postmortem that has the effect, so one is told and forlornly hopes, of cutting the grassy past to manageable proportions. For it keeps growing back, of course."

Newman Communications, the savior of many a publicist and author thanks to their radio tours, threw their biannual cocktail party at yet another swank bar for the book publicists that keep them in the red at Latitude last night on the edge of Hell's Kitchen in NYC. All the fun young publicists from houses around the city were there in droves to cut the rug, quaff some spirits, enjoy the beef satay and mingle.

It was also gossip haven during the evening and this Galleycat heard from more than one person that Harcourt just slashed their publicity dept by 2/3's, downsizing (love that euphemism) their director Michelle Blankenship, Senior publicist Sarah Melnyk (HR Dept's take note!) and two assistants as of tomorrow.

Houghton's statement on the latest round of layoffs, more pics, a Flounders sighting, and Man Vs Wild after the jump.

Photo: Newman Com from Left to Right- Tess Woods, Elise Bogdan, Ken Howell Rachel Rausch, David Ratner, Bob Newman, Tiffany Berryman, Dave Lindquist.

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Former St. Martin's Press editor Jason Pinter objects to yesterday's tipster's assertion that "male writers are being asked for headshots now with their manuscript submissions, from major houses." "It's disingenuous to run a quote saying that "male writers are being asked for their headshots." "That statement--without any sort of caveat or context--implies this practice is widespread and common, when I can attest to the fact that it is anything but. This is not to say that editors don't look at attractiveness as an unexpected bonus, but I've never heard of a fiction writer being asked to submit any kind of photo until after their book was already acquired. If this did happen (this story was told "anecdotally," remember), one instance hardly constitutes an epidemic," Jason writes. Fair enough.

I'm heading out to Michigan to take part in tomorrow's Ann Arbor Writer's Conference, part of that city's annual book festival, where I'll be discussing "blogging for the serious writer" with Claudia Mair Burney, which should be interesting considering that she just quit blogging because, among other things, "I feel like I have to be Claudia Mair Burney, and frankly, somedays, I'm not sure who she is."

Anyway, I decided just for the heck of it that I'm not even going to take my laptop with me on this trip, so you won't be hearing from me again until at least Monday, but with Andy and Emily around, you'll have plenty to talk about.

When I showed up at the still-incomplete downtown W Hotel and condo tower for Emily Giffin's book party last night, she was still up at the Borders in Columbus Circle, making sure she spoke to all the fans (including the employees) who came out for the first reading on the tour for her new book, Love the One You're With, so I chatted with Laura Dave and Brenda Janowitz until Giffin arrived—although she was soon pressed into signing more copies of the book in a quiet corner of the party space.

Dave is about to start her own tour, for The Divorce Party, next Monday night at the Lincoln Center B&N, while mediabistro.com instructor Brenda Janowitz's second novel, Jack with a Twist, comes out next month (look for a mediabistro.com party announcement soon!). I also ran into Tracy Quan, who filled me in on a party the Drug Policy Alliance is throwing next week to mark the one-year anniversary of the legalization of absinthe, which she's co-hosting with, among other people, 2012 prophet Daniel Pinchbeck.

It was a little over a year ago that I told you about Nextbook's one-day seminar on Jesus. This Sunday, the Jewish cultural website's "Festival of Ideas" focuses on "Jews and Power," specifically, according to the press release, "how Jews negotiate their relationship with power in both the political and cultural arena." (You will note that the event roughly coincides with the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel.)

Among the highlights of the all-day event: Paul Berman will discuss U.S.-Israeli relations with Aaron David Miller and Warren Bass; Shalom Auslander and Rebecca Goldstein will discuss "oppression from within" with Nextbook editor Sara Ivry; Ruth Wisse, who actually wrote the book on Jews and Power, talks politics with Cynthia Ozick and Bret Stephens. These and the other discussions will be conducted at the TimesCenter on West 41st Street, next to the NYT headquarters, an all-day pass will cost $20. (You could also try to get stand-by tickets for tonight's "Partisan Revue" comedy show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, but good luck!)

Let's be real: it's not like anyone writes PW reviews for the money. Factor in the labor of actually reading the book, then rereading it as you write your review in order to cite page numbers, and you realize you're making literally pennies an hour. No, people -- typically, people who work in publishing -- write PW reviews for the thrilling possibility of seeing their blurb on a cover, for the chance to (maybe) sway the tenor of reviews that might appear later in other publications, or just for the fun of getting free galleys now and then.

So it's not like PW reviewers will starve now because the rate they're being paid is being slashed by 50%. But it still sorta sucks. "However, you will be credited as a contributor in issues where your reviews appear," reassures reviews director Louisa Ermelino in the email she sent contributors announcing the change. Also, she writes that "all of us here are also experiencing change but we expect that we will continue to be the gold standard in book reviewing."

Yup, no one writes PW reviews for the money. However, expecting to get more than what you pay for, as a business strategy, might be sorta flawed.

I've heard about authors encouraging people to buy their new book on Amazon to jack up the ranking, and I've even heard about authors encouraging people to give their new book positive reviews to jack up the rating. But I'd never actually heard about an author making a point-blank offer to pay people to give his new book a review until yesterday, when former FishbowlLA blogger Kate Coe forwarded an email from an author with a newly published self-help book that included this passage:

"As you probably know, the key to kicking ass on Amazon is reviews. My book has only recently been added to their list, so I have no reviews. I need them, and I'm willing to pay to get them. I am NOT saying I am willing to pay for puff pieces. I'm talking real reviews—good or bad. One complication is that unless you've been a frequent reviewer at Amazon, they won't let you review a book you didn't buy from them. So, if you want to participate in this, you'll probably need to buy the book from Amazon. However, if you do, and you submit a review that gets posted—and it is clear that you actually read the book—I'll send you $50. I have $500 set aside to do this, so once it's gone, the deal is over. My preference is to pay through PayPal, but I'll send you a check via snail mail if that's what it takes. Just be sure to let me know you're submitting a review before it goes up."

Well, it's a straightforward plan, I'll give it that (although I hadn't heard about that "no reviews for stuff you ain't bought" rule before). Heck, $50 is actually a pretty decent rate for a capsule review, the way things have been going lately.

A reader writes: "Just thought you might want to know that anecdotally, vis a vis your post on Galleycat today, male writers are being asked for headshots now with their manuscript submissions, from major houses. One friend even wrote to ask me if this was normal as he was freaked out (he happens to be gorgeous). He did eventually sell his short story collection. To a decent literary house.

Previous to that, the only time I'd heard of it was back about 7 years ago when [Redacted] confided that her French and Italian publishers had asked her for a full body shot before consenting to buy her book. She sent it and the rights were acquired, and she was sent on tour."

(Joke about judging a book by its cover goes here).

In Marietta GA, Mulligan Food & Spirits owner, Mike Norman was selling "Obama in '08" t-shirts depicting Curious George eating a banana on them. According to the AJC:

Norman acknowledged the imagery's Jim Crow roots but said he sees nothing wrong with depicting a prominent African-American as a monkey. "We're not living in the (19)40's," he said. "Look at him . . . the hairline, the ears -- he looks just like Curious George."

Houghton Mifflin, which owns the rights to Curious George finally issued this official statement on the racial debacle:

"We have seen the news reports of a local bar owner in Marietta, GA allegedly selling T-shirts that depict the Curious George character in a racially insensitive manner. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which is the owner of copyright and trademark rights associated with Curious George, did not, nor would we under any circumstances, authorize or approve such a use, which we find offensive and utterly out of keeping with the values Curious George represents. We are monitoring the situation and weighing our options with respect to possible legal action."

While I don't see any pending Obama children's books, there are over a dozen adult titles coming up between now and election including my favorite sounding title: Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle: 366 Ways He Really Cares by Mathew Honan

Photo Cred: Frank Niemeir/AJC