|
As the market shifts, there is going to be a change in the way books are written. I don't think the quality is going to drop but the quantity might. Sooner or later, probably sooner, the Publishers, whoever they may be, will figure out how to make it worthwhile to scholars to produce those same books.
Authors are going to have to adjust to not having advances and to save more of their royalties. Publishers are already keeping and eye on the Independent authors who are doing well and offering them contracts. Those authors are probably not getting the same type of advances that a newer author would have gotten 10 years ago. As they develop their fan base and grow, they probably will not get the higher advances that are common now. They will probably press for more royalties.
The shift is not going to be easy for everyone, we all know that. There is no way to put the genie back in the bottle. E-books are growing, paper books are shrinking. Publishers and authors need to adapt to the new reality. The existing Publisher and Authors are scared. They know how the system works today and do not know how they are going to survive in a more e-book based world.
Burying their heads in the sand and defending the system that they know, while understandable, is not helping them. Hardback books are not going to bring in the volume they used to. That money is gone. Trying to jack up e-book prices, legally or illegally, to protect the hardback and trade paperback is not going to work. If they keep that up, piracy will thrive and people who would be happy to be a reasonably priced e-book on launch day are going to justify pirating the book instead.
|