Last night, the long-time scifi writer Norman Spinrad (who earlier this year was diagnosed with stomach cancer) published the second of a three-part series on "THE PUBLISHING DEATH SPIRAL." It's amazing! In it, he trashes his relationship with Knopf, who sank one of his books, trashes book designer Chip Kidd (for having more power than the editors) and trashes his Knopf editor for being useless, spineless and not so bright. It's a great read; I don't agree with all of it but it's illuminating. One thing that really stands out is the way the U.S. book publishing system is an entirely different animal than that of other [...]