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You know, I try to keep a positive attitude about all this.
There seems to be a trend in publishing these days, I don't know how big or strong, that is working to change the way books are distributed. It is the practice of members like Steve himself, and others, like Cory Doctorow, et al, are taking of distribution themselves.
Doctorow said something that I find quite prescient:
"Obscurity is more a threat than piracy ever can be." Of course, the notion of popularity would be a stronger inducement is we lived in a "Wuffie" world, but even so, a fan base and the esteem of customers is important.
I see a future for dedicated Readers. I foresee there being maybe three classes: 1. smallish, like the SONY PRS-500/505 for fiction and basic non-fiction; 2. a larger, more reference material/pictographic focused unit, somewhere around A4 or A2 even, for big texts. Something with a foldable or split screen for big illustrations, maps, diagrams, &tc; and finally 3. A full colour version of either 1. or 2., or maybe something even bigger, like a fully mutable mammoth picture frame or coffee table display, rather than a coffee table book.
Hmm...I guess that my optimism lies more with the technology, than the single application of digital text.
If someone creates a screen with colour and the same dimensions as the average comic or graphic novel, I bet we'd have our "killer app."
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