Quote:
Originally Posted by petrucci
One reason is that many of the current crop of free books are old and thus undesirable because of its antiquity. Another is that many of the new free ebooks are low quality. However, this may not remain the case as more books go out of copyright, and more authors post their works for free.
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Works come out of copyright at various times, but in general no earlier than 50 years after their author has died, and in many countries 70 years after. The US is an exception, in that for many years, no more books will enter the public domain until 95 years after their publication (in 2019 books published in 1923 will enter the US public domain).
So I see no likelihood of an increase in topical public domain books.
There are some quality authors (e.g. Cory Doctorow) posting their ebooks for free. I expect that this number will diminish as ebooks come to be the dominant part of the book market, rather than a tiny sliver of it.
Non-traditionally published authors? Some will become well known and make lots of money. Most will remain in obscurity, selling or giving away tiny quantities.
Publishers are going to have a hard time. Bookshops are going to get hammered. But I think that authors will do as well or better than they have previously.