If everyone gets a free copy, she says, the publisher and the writer and others involved in making the book go unpaid. They have mortgages. This is the one time of the year when the predominantly New Yorkish world of publishing comes to Washington to talk about common concerns. The group's general convention, closed to the public, runs today and tomorrow at the Mayflower Hotel. The AAP represents almost 300 publishing companies.
American publishers are on the ledge of a revolution.
They look around and see the music and film industries struggling to adapt to change. Besides hobnobbing with Hill people, the publishers will be rubbing elbows with an unusually glittery guest list. Christie Hefner of Playboy Enterprises is speaking to the flock. She spends days in Washington bending the ears of key policymakers and supporting legislation that is favorable to her members and battling proposals that are not. She spends days in New York listening to publishers drone on about their druthers.