Thursday, July 12, 2012

What Is the Future of Publishing? From @forbes

There has been a great deal of handwringing in the book publishing world for the last decade or so over what the Internet is going to do to traditional publishing.  And in the last few years, experimentation has increased, with successful authors like Seth Godin by-passing traditional publishing, new ventures like NetMinds from Tim Sanders and team, and the explosion of various kinds of self-publishing.  Amazon has become, of course, a huge presence in the book with, now paying advances just like traditional publishing, as well as trying out print-on-demand books and of course the Kindle.

I get questions all the time from prospective authors who wonder whether it’s worth it to publish in the traditional way at all.  The quick answer is, for speakers it’s still important, for now.  For everyone else, it depends.  But everyone wants to know, where’s the book business headed?  Who’s going to survive, and what will the terrain look like when the battle is over?

Of course no one knows, but already an outline of what’s going to happen is becoming clearer, and the picture is not cheery for traditional publishers.  Following are a few fearless predictions based on my vantage point interacting every day with authors, publishers, agents, and others in the industry.

Read on here....http://wtr.mn/LLE33W

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