A big change in the publishing business, from The New York Times:
The potential consolidation comes as traditional publishers try to compete with dominant technology companies like Amazon, Apple and Google that have gained power in the e-book market. Lower prices offered by retailers like Amazon have put pressure on publishers to adjust their digital book strategy at a time when brick-and-mortar stores have been disappearing.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 James Ament From The Huffington Post, by Yael Goldstein— the opening paragraph:
Fellow fiction writers,
Let’s be frank: we’re not the healthiest-minded bunch. If we were we’d spend our days doing something more pleasant than writing fiction. But lately we seem to have taken a turn for the worse. We look out at the shifting landscape of publishing – e-books rising, big publishers quaking – and obsessively ask, both publicly and privately, Is the novel dead? Is it all Fifty Shades of Twilight from here on out? Are we going the way of the poets, soon to be read by only each other?
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 James Ament From PJ Lifestyle (Hat tip: Instapundit).
Okay, I don’t expect what happened to Author Hugh Howey to happen to me, although it would be highly appreciated, but I am seriously thinking of going this route for my next novel. And I am working on it. I just completed a trip Charleston, South Carolina to do research for it.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 James Ament From the New York Review of Books, an article by Tim Parks:
Interviewed after winning England’s Costa Prize for Literature in late January, the distinguished novelist Andrew Miller remarked that while he assumed that soon most popular fiction would be read on screen, he believed and hoped that literary fiction would continue to be read on paper. In his Man Booker Prize acceptance speech last October, Julian Barnes made his own plea for the survival of printed books. Jonathan Franzen has also declared himself of the same faith. At the university where I work, certain professors, old and young, will react with disapproval at the notion that one is reading poetry on a Kindle. It is sacrilege.
Are they right?
It is clear when reading the entire article at the link, that the author likes e-books and some of the comments are quite passionate on the subject. My take is that it really isn’t something to either “love” or “hate.” I have a Kindle, read from it, and I have books and read them—both methods perfectly acceptable and rewarding.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 James Ament From NPR, an article called, At Last, They See: E-Books ‘Democratize’ Publishing. (Hat tip: Ann Althouse)
Not known as a hotbed of experimentation, the world of publishing has been slow to embrace the transition from print to e-books. This past week in New York, however, the Tools of Change digital publishing conference attracted entrepreneurs and innovators who are more excited by, rather than afraid of, the future.
It was the kind of crowd where some were more inclined to say “Steal my book!” than to argue over what that e-book should cost. These are people who see digital publishing not as a threat, but as an opportunity.
Joe Wikert of O’Reilly Media, which hosted the conference, says digital publishing is in its infancy but the potential is endless.
“If you come up with something new and exciting, you can change the playing field overnight,” Wikert says.
Read the whole thing at the above link.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 James Ament From MediaShift:
Some people argue that books are outmoded, that there are other media available today that offer more immediate methods for delivering knowledge and insight. But right now, long-form, substantively driven, and thoughtful consideration of the challenges that
our society is facing and how they must be addressed are served best by this format. Nobody wants to read 250 pages off a computer screen, nor does even the best documentary provide the same opportunity to pause for reflection.So yes, we will want books. But that doesn’t really answer the question of whether evolving commercial conditions will actually support the writing and publication of books.
Read about book piracy at the link.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 James Ament The true price of publishing, from the Guardian, asks:
Ebooks have reignited the question of what we’re really paying publishers for – the physical product, or what’s written inside?
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 James Ament An article at NPR, “Publishers Navigate The ‘Open Road’ Of E-Books,” tells us about Open Road Media, “a company that is banking its future on digital publishing.”
Open Road Media was co-founded by Jane Friedman, who had a long and illustrious career in what is now commonly referred to as the “traditional” publishing industry. Once the CEO of Harper Collins, one of the “big six” publishing companies, Friedman says she never looks back.
The publishing business is rapidly changing (in case you haven’t noticed).
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 James Ament 
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