“AUTHORS struggle, mostly in vain, against their fated obscurity. According to Nielsen Bookscan, which tracks sales from major booksellers, only 2 percent of the 1.2 million unique titles sold in 2004 had sales of more than 5,000 copies. Against this backdrop, the recent Authors Guild suit against the Google Library Project is poignantly wrongheaded.”
See the rest of the op-ed here. Killer first sentence, eh? Makes you wonder why we write. Not sure I completely agree with the argument, but it's an interesting perspective and one worth considering.
And, just when you were thinking about getting discouraged, read this article about 21-yr-old Christopher Paolini, best-selling author of Eragon and Eldest. I haven't read the books, but I salute the kid for his success and his maturity in the face of it.