Another example of a publishing company struggling to find their identity. Perhaps this was the conversation in the boardroom.

Acquisition editor: "Hey, is anyone besides me tired of all these unsolicited manuscripts? I mean, with most of the country out of work, it's like suddenly everyone's an author."

"Know the felling, bro."

Marketing manager: "Hey, here's an idea. Why not just offer to post the manuscripts online for free. I mean, don't most of these wannabe writers just want to see their name in print? This way we don't have to pay them, don't have to read their dribble and we get lots of hits to our site which allows us to sell "real" books."

Senior editor type: "Great idea. We'll need buy-in from agents, though, since this might cut into their commissions."

Acquisition editor: "No problem. They're as tired of this trash as we are."

Marketing manager: "I’ll handle the press release and place a call to our web gal in Bombay.”

Senior editor type: “Are we smart, or what? And who says traditional publishing doesn’t think outside the box. Speaking of boxes, pass me another slice of that pizza.”

http://zondervan.typepad.com/zondervan/