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A Writer's Guide to E-Publishing

Part 2 -- The Outlook

Some Other Realities

Optimists predict that the lower costs involved in electronic publishing will permit publishers to greatly expand their list of titles, to include mid-list writers and works that they can't afford to handle now. This will likely happen, to some extent. But a reduction in some production costs through e-publishing probably won't turn publishers into benevolent foundations dedicated to creating a 21st century literary renaissance. Publishing houses will still concentrate their efforts on products that will generate the highest sales -- serious titles by well-known and promising writers, along with celebrity scandals, dieting books, and potboilers. The publisher's business is in selling books.

Further, the changeover to new e-publishing technologies will require massive capital investments by publishers, which in turn will create a greater demand for return profits. Most of the major publishing houses have already begun investing in their own electronic future. Random House, for example, is digitizing all of its 20,000+ titles. Major players like these did not become major by merely responding to developments in the industry, but by anticipating them and controlling them. Their strategy will be to maintain their dominance in the print media while extending their empires into electronics media.

One possible scenario has publishers maintaining a status quo in their print divisions -- continuing to publish books with potential for large sales -- while becoming risk-takers in e-publishing, creating mid-list and even fringe divisions to publish works for audiences they have never reached before. This is one plausible development; whether or not it comes to pass will depend on how the reading public of the future decides to use e-books and other electronic publications.

Next . . .

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Contents of this article
Part 1 - The Technology
Introduction
What You're Reading Now
E-Book Readers
E-Publishing on Your Computer
Hypertext / HTML
Adobe PDF
Print On Demand
Online Publishing

Part 2 -- The Outlook
Publishing Economics
Some Other Realities
Some Good News & Some Dangers