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Thanks for the digest, FP -- it certainly feels like we're on the cusp of an ebook revolution.
Actually I think the outlook for authors is rosier than it might appear. Remember the old adage? "Content is king". Without authors, there is no content, and no publishing industry at all.
Authors need publishers for distribution and promotion. With ebooks, the net takes care of distribution; and most publishers' promotional campaigns are, frankly, dismal. I believe we will see the emergence of a new wave of indie authors. The process is analogous to the transformation of the music industry. For mp3 player, read ebook display.
Amazon's strategy, both in trying to corner the market and in offering a means for individual authors to offer their wares to Kindle owners, suggests to me that they know they are on shaky ground when it comes to ebooks. If electronic distribution of books takes some of the clout from publishers, it will impact even more heavily on booksellers.
Readers may not be aware that the bookseller's markup on pbooks can be 50% or more, with perhaps a similar or even greater figure for ebooks. The pleasure and convenience of having somewhere to browse the latest books comes at a high price.
Ebooks should be very much cheaper than pbooks, since the main cost is the author's time and expertise, which at the moment accounts for only 10-15% of the price. Beyond the author's efforts, we have the cost of editing and formatting to take into account, which might represent 2% of the price. Thus an ebook costing $10 from a publisher might be a commercial proposition at $1.70 ... provided the author can sell the work directly to the reader. And as our old friend Mr Shakespeare remarked, "there's the rub!"
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