The business of publishing on the Southwest coast is booming.

BY ROGER WILLIAMS

More than ever, the business of books  is booming - but not always in traditions' directions.

From Naples to Fort Myers, authors of fiction and non‑fiction alike describe a publishing industry in transition, with big publishing houses buying smaller ones,  financial turmoil ht the highest ranks, and. paradoxical thinning out of book distributers  coupled with the rise of some small independent presses that do well.

Regardless of charges in the Industry, the sheer range of recently published works by regional authors is startling anti impressive. These titles appear through big publishing houses, little publishing houses,University presses, print‑on‑demand publishing houses, self-made publishing house and on‑line publishing publishers.

Each writer would tell a different story to describe how he or she finally published a book. Many are publishing books (or t n first time, or books unlike any they they've attempted before.

Peg Goldberg Longstreth, the Neapolitan owner of Longstreth Goldberg ART Gallery, founded her own publishing, company Gold Mountain Press, where she bringing to print this year two serious works of non‑fiction by veteran writers and authors. But in the meantime she's published with her late mother Isabelle Crane Goldberg, a recollection of their own lives fancifully dressed in "A Bear Called Charlie: A Memoir."

The 178‑page adult work. also illustrated by the author, has defied the sobering statistics that suggest sell‑publishing is a road to nowhere (self‑published authors sell, on average, about 100 books, according to one study). A new author and a Florida Weekly contributing columnist, Ms. Longstreth has already sold thousands of copies of "Charlie" and the book is gaining serious momentum both in the United States and abroad, partly on the tide of Ms. Longstreth's energetic promotions, readings and marketing strategy, about which she spent six months educating herself.

"The publishing industry is in chaos,' she says bluntly. "And even if you get an agent and a big publisher, unless you can market the book yourself, it'll gather dust and six months later Barnes & Noble will take it off the shelf"