6 june 06

Greetings,

The digital revolution makes it easier to download music, films, poetry and books.

It has an effect on writers, artists and creativity in many forms. Some like the potential, others see it as a threat. Motoko Rich in the NYT presents an article detailing such doings in book publishing.

Who wrote the "rules"? Who runs the show? No writers, no publishers. No publishers, no market. Connect the dots.

Cyber-text, experimentation, e-books, you-name-it. You make it happen in cyberspace. Bypass the traditional ways of agents and publishers. Take control of your own work. Get it out there while enjoying the freedom to publish what you create with passion when you want.

We mentioned the vagaries of the publishing biz in Middle Kingdom podcast #11.

Also, from 4 July - 4 August, Project Gutenberg, - and World e-Book will offer 250,000 free books, articles and documents. Great.

Powells, - one the best independent bookstores in the states is going strong. They offer 4.5 million new, used, rare and out-of-print books. Powell was onto something early. Used books and online sales have revolutionized the bookselling industry in the past few years, industry groups say.

In recent years, used books have been a fast-growing segment of the bookselling business, according to a study by Book Industry Study Group. InfoTrends estimates that total used-book revenue exceeded $2.2 billion in 2004 and 111 million used books were sold, an increase of 11 percent from 2003.

"My goal is not to be visible. My goal is to be successful in getting books to readers," Michael Powell said. "Every book has a potential reader, so the challenge is to find that linkage. Sometimes it takes more effort; ... sometimes there is only one reader."

Peace.

Digital Publishing Is Scrambling Industry's Rules