One of the messages I heard loud and clear from people at the most recent Consortium (our book distrbutor) sales conference in New York was: Pare your list and focus on the best few. Of course, we can't pare anymore than we already have — one new book a season is about as pared down as you can get. But the point was, I believe, that the book world is overwhelmed with new titles and it takes so much more effort these days to sell a book once it is out.

The other reason for paring your list, I think, is that we all need to step back and figure out what should be a book and what is suited for some other media. Chin Music does this a lot more than most publishers, and that's why our books are few but special, and our online presence (including the recent addition of Hitotoki) is more extensive and eclectic than any other "book" publisher I know.

Design Observer has an interesting entry up on the exponentially growing book world and what a publisher's to do about it. Don't miss the many cogent comments, which really round out the piece.