Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
Most successful businesses can't afford the luxury of thinking about (or enjoying) "right now."
"Right now" is already ancient history, while the next ten years are "now" for the publishing world. How many of these non-traditional sources might be well on their way toward being traditional in a decade?
|
You're misusing the "right now" as I'd meant it. Realistic speculation -- speculation that is based on a good deal of experience with print and ebooks -- shows no sign that any of these vanity ventures are going to shake publishing in any way. Even Amazon's attempt at publishing isn't having any sort of impact on traditional publishers -- their 150 books are a drop in the bucket, and not a very big drop. And common sense speculation about a future in which other online retailers try to do what Amazon is doing suggests that this will not change. Plus, sooner or later, authors and agents dealing with Amazon are going to find out that they're predatory, as is Indigo (Kobo's parent company).
Really, there's absolutely nothing to indicate that "non-traditional" publishing models are going to change anything. It sounds sexy for the media to say otherwise, and it gives false hope to unpublished authors who think publishers have overlooked their genius for years, but realistically, as long as publishers embrace the electronic publishing world, those publishers will do quite well. The reason? Because we actually know what we're doing, and know how to publish good books, how to work with authors to make those books better, how to guide careers, how to market books so that we can connect authors to readers, etc.