Amidst news of declining book sales, the takeover of electronic publishing, and big publishers shuttering imprints came two interesting articles last week. First, Penguin Young Readers Group is countering rumors of the death of the picture book with the Fall 2011 Penguin Portfolio: A Spotlight on Picture Books, a glossy, boxed collection of six full-color prints from six upcoming picture books. According to Publishers Weekly, about 500 of this lush promotional tool was delivered to booksellers, librarians, teachers, publishers, authors and illustrators. Penguin created a similar buzz last fall with a boxed set of five young adult Advanced Reading Copies (ARCs) distributed in a similar way.

The second article appeared in Children's Bookshelf: Egmont USA Gives YA Novel Its Biggest Launch to Date, about the September 6 release of Ilsa J. Bick's Ashes, and the publisher's six-figure marketing campaign that includes two author book tours (one pre-pub, one post), and "national consumer and trade advertising, online author video interviews, promotion at Comic-Con NYC, and outreach to science fiction and fantasy media."

So my question is this: Are publishers hand-picking bestsellers and then pouring money into advertising to guarantee results? And if so, what's left for the rest of their lists? And what goes into a publisher's decision to spend marketing dollars on a particular book? Quality, of course (though I've yet to read any of the promoted books, the buzz from some advance readers sounds promising). And the more a publisher pays to acquire a manuscript, the more it will spend to hype that book to consumers. But is all this expensive promotion really necessary? Many self-published authors have sold hundreds of thousands of copies of their books using their own home-grown, inexpensive marketing efforts. So would publishers do better to spread the publicity dollars around, or perhaps discount their books for smaller book stores and other sales outlets?

These big budgets could be a bit of we're-still-here muscle flexing (I do wonder why Penguin sent the Portfolio to authors, illustrators and other publishers). Or a nostalgic throwback to the glory days of print publishing and four-star book tours. Is this a hopeful sign for old-fashioned books? Or a waste of money on titles that would sell well on their own? What do you think?