Here’s a story from IRNA that builds on my column a few weeks ago. Translation may be required. The problems facing Iranian publishers and booksellers are similar to those faced by their US counterparts. While the Iranians have a few issues that Americans don’t — many of them caused by America — they also have a few solutions unknown to Yankeekind.

If under the existing mass market system, books worldwide become money drains for all parties involved, the solutions appear to be either going all digital, with all the troubles associated therewith, or, as Vox Day once noted, returning the book to its former status as a luxury item. Both might work for a while. Either way, any way, something has to give.