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Originally Posted by LazyScot
Fascinating thread!
My better half studied the 1700's and 1800's; a time of a lot of change in the area of publishing with many familiar debates and problems...
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You're right: The 1700s and 1800s were a period of serious change, especially in areas of entertainment, and more especially in capitalistic and entrepreneurial ventures. With the changes that the internet has brought, changes could be as radical now as they were then, and give us an industry that will look unrecognizable to authors and publishers of just a few years ago.
I expect the same globalization that is currently upsetting concepts like copyright, ownership and distribution, will play a major role in establishing new publishing, distribution and payment channels. For instance, maybe authors will have a more controlling role, hiring editors in another country to vet their work, and paying for distribution through advertising of a product made in a third country. Or maybe the traditional publishing and distribution system will subdivide into modules, allowing an author's agent to choose the best
ala carte combination of editing, publishing and distribution channels for their client, job by job.
Either way, we can expect more change to come, some of it possibly unpredictable, all of it interesting.