Quote:
Originally Posted by barryem
Ebooks are still new enough that we don't really know what effect they're going to have on reading and writing and publishing. Everyone (including me) keeps trying to figure that out. But it's still very early days.
Historically writers have let publishers worry about the money end of things and they've just focused on the writing. The qualities that make a good artist don't always make a good business man. Not that an author can't be a good businessman, but they shouldn't have to be. A lot of writers aren't but that never mattered a lot in the past. I think it matters more today, because of ebooks and self publishing. The better businessman is as likely to succeed as the better writer. That might not be a good thing for readers.
On the other hand, the long tail might make new authors less important in the future. How many books is enough?
Barry
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I think if you substitute the word agent for publisher, in the worry about money sentence, you would have it right. I also think that you have it exactly right in that a lot of good authors have neither the skills nor the desire to be a one source shop. I do think that is one reasons that publishers won't go away, though I do think that we will see a lot of smaller specialty publishers rather than the mega publishers we have now.
Business models change on a regular basis. Way back when I started reading, most authors primary revenue source were magazines rather than books. Sometime in the late 60's and early 70's, mass market paperback books became much more popular and books became more important, then passed magazines as a revenue source. Some of the older writers have seen a lot of change in the business models over the span of their writing career.