An author who spoke on the condition of anonymity raises the most logical objection to Deirdre Donahue's proposition that "book media has a real responsibility to readers to showcase new talent," by asking, "If you look at USA Today's book coverage, you see Harry Potter, David Baldacci, Sue Grafton, Richard Matheson, etc. What is USA Today doing to showcase new talent?"

I'm sure the question has an answer, but at least the criticism has the virtue of being pointed and direct, as opposed to the unsigned email from a self-described veteran publicist who takes issue with Donahue's other assertion, which is that "book publishing should do a better job of growing and promoting its own stars," and says that Donahue doesn't offer any realistic ways to do that:

"If an author is not famous how is he is going to get on television? The audience for most books is very small, so why would a publisher spend money on promoting the author? Also, I think most book buyers are imune [sic] to promotion."

That reminds me of a joke: What do you call a publicist who believes that most of the market is immune to promotion? A masochist. (I just said it reminded me of a joke; I never said it was funny.) Seriously, though, to argue that the book world will never be able to create stars because authors can't get on television seems rather to miss the point, which wasn't that we need to elevate authors to the fame levels of TV faces and governor's wives. Corporate pressures aside (with the recognition that that's a highly idealized condition), success doesn't always have to be immediate mega-success. If you need to put it in corporate terms, though, let's figure out how to shake free of the big hits mentality and cultivate modest returns on investment that have the potential to snowball. Or, to put in historical terms I'm familiar with, stop greenlighting Tora! Tora! Tora! and swing M*A*S*H into production. (The analogy isn't perfect; after all, we already do have our Stewart O'Nans and Valerie Martins—the question is how to turn such writers into our Ian McEwans.)

"I have been promoting books for the last ten years," this email concludes, "and I can tell you from personal experience one of the hardest things to do is to promote a book." This is just a thought, but—especially given the assertion that people seem to be immune to your promotional efforts—I wonder if you're making it harder than it needs to be.