Putnam publisher and editor-in-chief Neil Nyren drops in on the Murderati blog for a chat with author JT Ellison, and says that while the book market has become tigher, publishers are still looking for authors they can nurture over the long haul:

"If I spend $30,000 for a book and it sells 2,000 copies in hardcover... then we have to look at why it sold so few, whether a different strategy is needed, if there's a way we can bump that up next time. If it turns out that there is no bump next time, then we have to figure out where we go from there. Sometimes where we go is to do more books with the author anyway. Maybe the author's gotten the kind of reviews or made the kind of friends or just written such damn good books that we say, 'You know, there's got to be more here, we've just got to find it.' Because, in fiction at least, we're always buying the author, not a particular book. We're trying to establish a career. "

And he's not just talking about his own authors: Nyren calls himself "a great fan" of mystery writer Julia Spencer-Fleming, and says "I do expect to see her on that [NYT bestseller] list some day." Which no doubt makes the folks at Minotaur, who're publishing her latest, I Shall Not Want, in May, that much more optimistic. Unless they should be scared that he's got his eye on her.