Agent Chip MacGregor has a great blog post answering questions about the publishing industry. If you're trying to get your manuscript "in" I suggest you check it out. Aspiring authors could learn a lot from this one spot.
I know a lot of writers feel frustrated with the traditional publishing industry. Like most businesses even the big publishing houses (Random, HarperCollins, etc.) are taking it on the chin these days, too. This has given rise to 1. authors bitter about the way they've been treated by traditional publishing to sort of celebrate the big houses having it rough and see it as payback for they way they've treated us poor authors, and 2. Authors who cheer on the e-book biz and declare that print publishing is dead, dead, dead.
As for me, the bottom line is this- print publishing is suffering but it ain't dead. I don't figure on reading its obit any time soon. The e-book readers are pricey for most folks, then there is the matter of all those different formats supported depending on the device. I don't doubt that the market for e-books will increase, but like cell phones and Ipods they gotta make 'em easier to use. The Kindle is wireless but then we go back to price. As for the way publishing has done business (big advances for some authors, little to no marketing for most authors, celebrity tell all books that make no money, etc.)- yes, maybe the big houses will re-think some of the ways they have been doing business. Watching them change will be like watching grass grow- sloooooow going. These are big outfits and change doesn't come easy in publishing.
In the meantime getting a traditional book deal is IMHO the best way for most authors to go. You simply can't fight the twin bears of marketing and distribution as effectively as the big houses can. And folks, if only a hand full of folks know about or can find your book that's a big problem!
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