The nice thing about the Huffington Post is that they have such a wide variety of people writing for them. When they totally miss the mark on one article, they have another article that nails it.
A few weeks ago a writer for the Huffington Post declared that e-books would make mid-list authors extinct–something that just isn’t true.
Today we have a different writer, Rafi Mohammed, welcoming e-books and the changes they are bringing. I particularly like this bit:
“With print sales destined to slowly wither, brick and mortar book retailers also need to adapt to the realities of this movement towards e-books or go the way of record stores. Numb from disbelief, the music industry and record stores twittered their thumbs as consumers switched to digital. As a result, how many record stores are in your area today?”
E-Books bring many opportunities for authors and readers, not so many for publishers and stores. It is crunch time, and they need to adapt. If bookstores don’t already have a strategy around how to survive the next 2-3 years, then it’s probably already too late. Publishers have more time to adjust, but there are many opportunities for smaller publishers to jump to the head of the class, so to speak. Those who really understand the digital age, and have a strategy, will see tremendous opportunities in the months and years to come.
Authors should also have an e-book strategy, or at least make sure your publisher does. I think in the future, we’ll rarely see authors sign away their rights, and for a publisher to ask for e-book rights will seem about as ludicrous as asking for the rights to a first-born child.
Again, from the article:
“This week’s e-reader device price war was a shot over the bow — the future of publishing has been clarified: digital books are set for explosive growth while print books are slowly headed toward extinction.”
