Selling books on a direct basis

[Joseph Esposito <espositoj@gmail.com>]

I just posted a piece at the Scholarly Kitchen on the 
direct-marketing of books:

http://j.mp/dwXHPm

I got interested in this topic several years ago when I saw that 
it was becoming harder and harder for publishers to get 
distribution in bookstores; and now that the marketplace is 
moving online, the venues for publishers, especially academic 
publishers whose "long tail" books sell disproportionately 
online, are becoming very tough on margins.

I would be interested in hearing offline from anyone who has some 
experience in the direct marketing of books.  How big can this 
get, I wonder?

Joe Esposito