There's Money In That Slushpile

So how much is the Publishing Slushpile worth today? What would you pay for a pile of self published books which have not seen all those value added publisher inputs that Jonathan Galassi wrote about in the New York Times.

Looking at the question from a different perspective what would to pay for a 7 year old company that offered all writers an on line shop window to self publish digitally?

Lulu.com was founded to do just the above in 2002. They didn’t get embroiled in those value added steps Galassi says are publishing and others say are packaging. Lulu.com is now targeting about $50 million from a planned initial public offering and has hired Genuity Capital Markets and CIBC World Markets as the issue's leading underwriters.

The trade publishers have failed to understand the new democratization of writing and have stuck to the old packaging model. There is adequate room for both but some would suggest that the scales in the digital world now need to be adjusted as Lulu. Wattpad and others such as Scribd aren’t going away and there are only so many mouths that can be fed.