“As publishing has become less expensive, the urge to write my own self has become the opportunity to publish my own self,” said Gabriel Zaid, a Mexican critic and the author of “So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance,” a meditation on literary life in an over-booked world. Today, he added, “Everyone now can afford to preach in the desert.”

What gives? University writing programs, writing conferences and wide-spread blogging has made writing more accessible than ever before, and most importantly, an explosion of inexpensive self-publishing outfits, courtesy of everyone’s favorite online time-waster, the internet.

The good news: there are more books, and a greater variety, than ever before in our history. The bad news: most of them you don’t want to read.

The article examines the relationship between self-publising companies and mainstream booksellers, including online and brick-and-mortar operations. Home-made books are finding their way to the shelves, albeit slowly. It’s worth a read.

(thx, NYT Books)