This article on David Gaughran's blog about Penguin buying the apparently highly disreputable self-publishing company Author Solutions is a real eye-opener:

http://indiereader.com/2012/07/penguins-new-business-model-exploiting-writers/

Self-publishing (completely on my own, hiring in services such as cover art on a flat-fee basis, uploading content myself) is looking more and more attractive, the more I read about publishers and their practices.

Veeeery interesting! Toast, would you mind posting this in the self-publishing group too? I'm sure the folks there would like a read of this

Oh dear, the more I read about the publishing industry the more depressed I get. I should've kept my head buried in the sand!

Done!

Actually, I'm realising that with a lot of my self-publishing/e-publishing posts, I'm tending to post more of them in the forum than in the self-pub group because I'm thinking that they're of general interest, but maybe I overestimate the interest of most WW members in self-publishing!

I'm just a bit worried about posting things that might be generally interesting not being visible on the forums homepage because you have to scroll down miles to see the Groups posts and I don't know if anybody bothers (I don't). Maybe x-posting is the answer.

I thought this one was just jaw-dropping about what it says about Penguin, never mind the self-pubbing aspect.

There's another awful story in the news about famous publishers up to dodgy stuff. Harlequin sublicensed certain rights, including ebook rights, to another company resulting in authors getting 3% (yes, really) rather than 50%, of the wholesale price. Bad enough, but the real gobsmacker is the discovery that the sublicensee is Harlequin itself. Three authors have launched a class action against it. Here's the story, on J.A. Konrath's blog:

http://jakonrath.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/harlequin-fail-part-2.html

I'd say don't hide this stuff away. It needs to be in the main forums.

The links don't make happy reading, but we all need to be aware of what goes on.

Chris

This is jaw-dropping. What are Penguin thinking? This will ruin thei brand by association.

Thank you, Toast. I am absolutely gobsmacked by this.

Nothing to say. Speechless.
G