It's an interesting article. With regard to printed books, I can't speak for the rest of the world, but I know that in the UK the current market is placing a huge amount of pressure on publishers. Supermarkets are now stocking printed books and forcing prices down, which leaves smaller margins and less money for the publishers to invest in new talented authors.
I believe ebooks will save the day for publishers. As reader's habits change ebooks might become the predominant market over the printed book market. This will take control away from the supermarkets (in the UK at least) and, across the world, it will save the publishers printing costs meaning that they have more money to invest in new 'up and coming' authors.
At the end of the day the book buying customers will decide the way things go. If people prefer ebooks then I believe that we can expect a revival in the mid-list authors and a greater variety of new authors. Anybody have any thoughts on this? Will ebooks become the predominant form of books?
Rick Parussel
The-Plot-Thickens fiction ebook retailer