At the workshop, Anna Genoese and Beth Meecham noted that sales are down in all book markets; people are more interested in paying for gas for their cars, etc., and so are watching more TV (as that's a cost they're already paying, whereas books are an additional cost per book). As such, the cost of producing books has gone up. This has been a real hassle for publishers, and also means they can accept less books than they'd like.
Similarly, short-fiction venues are also failing to be profitable. People aren't buying the print ones, and people aren't advertising in any of them. As such, a number of short fiction markets (Lenox Avenue, SciFiction, etc.) have closed down in the past few months. Others are not accepting submissions right now.
There was some talk about how writers can still succeed in such a market, as well as how they pick which manuscripts are accepted, etc. Luckily, I'm not trying to make my primary living at this (yet), but it's sobering.
