Entrepreneur and management science professor Philip M. Parker has "automatically" generated more than 200,000 books with the help of 60 or so computers and a half dozen programmers. Most cover arcane, under served topics such as the market outlook for small bath mats in China. And Parker is selling them through Amazon’s print-on-demand book service, BookSurge.

Parker’s titles sell only dozens or in some cases hundreds of copies. But as today’s New York Times report suggests, that could be a viable business model:

"His company, the Icon Group International, is the long tail of the bell
curve come to life — generating significant total sales by adding up
tens of thousands of what might be called worst sellers."

We hereby declare a new category of coverage in this blog—"Pub Apps"—to track such digital techniques, widgets, and applications. Somewhere in the never-ending stream of these innovative curiosities are sure to be ideas that will help shape the future of publishing.