I just finished reading an article in The Nation, by Elisabeth Sifton, which appeared in the June 8, 2009 edition:
The Long Goodbye? The Book Business and its Woes
Sifton's essay is a must read for all book lovers -- readers and writers alike. Her essay details the current state of the publishing world from an insider's perspective; Sifton is the senior vice president of Farrar, Straus & Giroux. She is also an author: The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War (Norton). She packs a lot of information in the essay, providing a radiant light on the writer as krill in the book's disrupted publishing chain.
Highly recommended.