From French Exit, on poems published only because (we suspect) they were written by famous poets:

I get the feeling that these writers are accustomed to being published because of who they are--because they have come to be accepted as good poets--rather than because of the particular poems they have submitted for publication. Everybody knows this happens. Everybody's read a throwaway poem by a good poet in a journal. Fine. I write those too. But I don't want to publish those poems in Absent. I admit it's hard to turn down mediocre work by a poet you're excited to have a submission from at all, but you have to publish the poem, not the poet. Otherwise you end up being, I don't know,Ploughshares. (Sorry to pick on you so much this week, Ploughshares. But you're so namey.) When I scan the TOC in an online journal and it's just the usual suspects, half of me assumes they are half-ass poems, potentially written primarily to keep up with solicitations from online journals.

She then goes on to say what she would like to see in submissions:

Here's what I'd like to see more of in submissions: IDEAS. Why don't poems have more ideas? So many poems I read are essentially just descriptions. So you went outside. It was beautiful. Or not. I don't care how creatively you describe it, if it didn't trigger any thoughts beyond "Hells yeah I am going to describe this," it's not a poem. It's just showing off to yourself, or as Matt Rass used to say, "masturbating to language."

And later:

Poems are not supposed to be beautiful (though they can be). They're supposed to be good.

With Apple's Tablet due to be unveiled tomorrow, agent Nathan Bransford takes his shot at some predictions and key questions.

(It) seems clear to me that the days of grayscale e-books are likely coming to an end. While the iTablet will probably be too expensive to change things immediately, it's a harbinger of things to come: color and video and audio are coming to e-book readers near you.

And it's going to be interesting to see how it shakes out. Who will be the first author with an animated cover? Will people crave enhanced e-books or do people want their e-books to remain static and moving-part free? Will Apple come to dominate the e-book business the way they do e-music, or will other competitors like Amazon remain strong? Will dedicated devices still appeal to core audiences?

I personally think a big question is: will people still read books on a device so eminently capable of distracting you with movies, the Internet, games, and anything the geeks of tomorrow invent?

We'll see. But I suspect the future of publishing is about to take another lurch forward.

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In other important news, the time for Junot Diaz's Q&A session at Butler has been set:

When: Friday, February 12, 9:00 a.m.

Where: Butler University, Jordan Hall, Writers' Studio

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In other, less important news, the Indy Star's book page is still boring and irrelevant.