There's a guy called Gerard Jones who sends emails around the publishing industry about his website. I think he's probably a talented writer. I think he's also extremely assiduous judging by the amount of time and effort he has dedicated to creating a huge database of people in the publishing and related industries. Here's an example of his email style:

Why does he do it? Making enemies can't be the best way to help his efforts to be published. He can't make money from it (or can he?). Perhaps it's a way of creating a community of like-minded people. He seems to think there is a conspiracy among publishers to avoid new talent, to promote rubbish and in general to do a very bad job. All this might be true but I'd like to reassure Gerard and anyone else who thinks similarly that there is no conspiracy - it is merely incompetence. Perhaps the publishing industry should adopt a mission statement - WE'RE DOING OUR BEST.

Having posted this I went to get my weekly fix of book browsing - in an independent bookshop - all right, not that independent, the Pan Bookshop. I picked up a copy of Bad Faith by Carmen Callil. It is history of the guy in the Vichy Government responsible for 'controlling the Jewish population' in Southern France. I haven't read it yet but it is clearly a work of scholarship about a fascinating period of French history. It must have taken the author years of research, tears and trouble to produce this 600-page treatise. It is beautifully designed and produced by the team at Jonathan Cape, part of Random House UK, part of Random House Worldwide, part of Bertelsmann Media Worldwide. The book's audience is clearly not mass market and yet, in spite of the consolidation, gloabalisation and commercialisation of the industry it has seen the light of day and found a market ( I bought a copy and so, according to the bookshop manager, have another forty people, helped by a signing session).

Alongside this book were hundreds (possibly thousands) of similarly excellent titles - a great range, beautifully produced, idiosyncratic but tailored to the local market - at great prices. Bad Faith was £20 in hardback which elsewhere in the Fulham Road in London buys a bunch of asparagus, 100g of Brie and two glasses of wine. The point of this is to suggest that maybe (just maybe) the industry is doing a great job and is getting better by becoming more professional and more market-aware. If so, then perhaps a little credit should go to the dedicatee of Bad Faith - 'To PBH' - Paul Hamlyn who, extraordinarily does not have a Wikipedia entry and so you'll have to make do with a link to one of his legacies - another reason to be cheerful.