Yesterday I attended a meeting organised by the Booksellers Association to discuss the opportunities and threats posed to the book trade as a whole by the shifting sands of technology and consumer behaviour. The meeting was conducted under the Chatham House rule but it was agreed that the findings and discussions will be widely communicated as soon as the materials are put in order. I shall not jump the gun but, while listening, my mind kept going back to an interview which I blogged a few days ago. It generated a lot of comments from independent booksellers as the 'mystery entrepreneur' challenged many preconceptions about our industry and bookselling in particular. However, it was the last question and answer which has (understandably) made me think hardest:

WW: What about Publishers? Aren’t publishers part of the problem? Shouldn’t they be part of the solution? 

MC: My guess is that somewhere in that solution will be the elimination of “publishers” as we traditionally know them. The only other industry consisting of massively over-compensated mediocre performers who have utterly outlasted their utility and raison d’etre and exist only by virtue of an entrenched, self-protective, bullying autocracy that gangs up against threats posed by obviously more efficient methods that would, could, should and will eliminate them—is Wall Street.

Well, that's telling us. The only consolation is that, for all its sins, I'm pretty certain that Wall Street will survive - and so shall publishers.

Our virtual tour of Macmillan bestsellers takes us to Palgrave Macmillan in the Flatiron Building in New York who have just ended the best year in their history thanks to brilliant publishing and assiduous marketing.

1. The Statesman's Yearbook 2007