The world just seems aflutter with all of the talk and predictions surrounding ebooks these days.  On the publishing front you’ve got The Huffington Post racing their authors into ebooks, Simon & Schuster announcing their new ebook strategy, publishers re-visiting the ebook royalties that they pay out to authors, authors openly talking about their increased ebook royalties, and self-publishers launching broader ebook programs (yes, we’re talking Lulu– my old alma mater).

Furthermore, the ebook device world is becoming downright exciting, with the Amazon Kindle being challenged on almost every front. Just check out this list of new ebook readers that will be soon hitting the market.

A game’s afoot!

And if you’re a publisher, author, or just someone who enjoys reading a good book, you’ll be impacted by these changes–and there’s no escaping it. As a matter of fact, this disruption in book publishing and consumption is not unlike what we witnessed with the transformation of the music industry, and, like music artists, authors will need to adjust to this radically changing dynamic. The book market will become more price competitive, overall quality may suffer as more and more first-time authors “DIY” their way into the distribution channels (remember that you can publish directly into the Kindle and other ebook formats for free), and digital piracy will rear it’s ugly head.

Success will depend on new, innovative marketing approaches. Sure, we’ve heard all that before and maybe even studied it in business school, but we quickly forgot about it in the sweet, warm comforting world of centuries-old traditional publishing (ah, the good ol’ days). New technologies, along with the Internet, have changed the reality of publishing–and for good.

Like any business paradigm shift there will be winners and losers, along with advocates and pundits. My advice is to just be practical. Think back to the recent re-adjustment of the music distribution and publishing model, and how buyer habits (along with yours) changes. Most importantly, let go of the print mindset–however much it hurts to do so. Sure, I love printed books as much as anyone, and some of my most enjoyable memories are derived from reading some of my favorite books, both as a child and as an adult. And yes, I still read print books (I’ve got Stephen King’s most recent tome on back order now).

But do you still buy vinyl LPs? I don’t. I don’t even buy CDs any more. Do you depend on a land-line phone for communication? I don’t think so. In the same way, and whether it’s 2010, 2012, or 2020, the book paradigm will shift to digital–and we’ll wonder why we ever questioned that outcome.

If you’re an author, you should definitely consider whether ebooks should be part of your distribution strategy. You probably won’t switch cold turkey–I still incorporate print with almost all my authors, and I even have some authors where we decided that ebooks weren’t the right approach. But we thought it through, and we made our decisions based on the book genre, its audience, the financial opportunities, and other relevant factors.

The times–especially in publishing–are a-changin’. They changed from offset printing to POD, which enabled millions of aspiring authors to economically get into the publishing game. My friends and I at Lulu were largely responsible for that, and it was a heck of a lot of fun.

The ebook revolution will be even more disruptive, I guarantee it. So embrace the future–or at least ask around and keep an eye on it. Better yet, ask your audience and your readers, because at the end of the day you want to be where they are.

Until next time, keep publishing!

Henry Hutton
PublishandSell.com
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