Quote:
Originally Posted by Daithi
Digital publishing changes all of that. You don't need somebody to print the book -- you can do it yourself. You don't need a gate keeper. The public becomes the gate keeper by rating books. You don't need brick and mortar stores for distribution. In short, as far as digital books are concerned, you don't need publishers.
|
Not quite, I think. Digital books remove the *necessity* for publishers, not the need.
It all depends precisely how you define a publisher.
I think it could be described most basically as the entity bearing the financial responsibility of bringing a book to the marketplace. Ebooks drastically lower the financial requirements to the point where self-publishing becomes viable in practice for every author. The *necessity* of publishers is effectively removed. However, those ancillary services you describe all come at a financial cost. Publishers carry out those additional activities in the belief that they produce a return on investment, a belief I don't think any would argue with. An author looking to maximize their financial reward may therefore need a publisher. (This is before considering that having a link with a publisher opens the possibility of being paid *during* the writing process. This is obviously a pretty major benefit.)