Ebook revolution can kindle a passion for publishing

Many people have asked me why I, a literary agent, decided to publish books. The short answer is “to better serve my authors”. The long answer requires a little backstory on how the publishing business has changed in recent years. 

By Ed Victor - The Telegraph -  02 Jun 2012

Amazon.com – the all-devouring genie publishers let out of the bottle that has come back to haunt them with its monopolistic dominance Photo: AP

When I went into the book publishing business in 1964, it was substantially the same business as it was in 1924 – and indeed as it was to be in 2004. The publisher acquired, edited and produced books, which it sold to retail bookstores, who in turn sold to consumers.

Yes, there were some major refinements of that model along the way - eg the rise of paperbacks and book clubs - but fundamentally the chain of supply (author to agent to publisher to bookseller to consumer) remained the same for nearly a century. Then, circa 2005, everything - and I mean everything - changed. And it has been changing, day in and day out, ever since.

What essentially happened was that the business suddenly transformed itself from a bricks and mortar sales and distribution model to an environment in which books were bought by consumers online – either as physical books or, as is increasingly the case, ebooks. And that fact has altered the entire modus operandi of the industry.

One of the most striking of those changes has been the terrifying rise of Amazon.com – the all-devouring genie publishers let out of the bottle that has come back to haunt them with its monopolistic dominance.
Then there is the concomitant, dizzying rise in the take-up of e-readers and the consumption of ebooks – a seismic shift the industry is still trying to adjust to. A further important development has been the upturn in self-publishing – made possible by the new digital print and distribution technologies. Now anyone can publish a book, and what was once regarded as “vanity publishing” has become a real and important branch of our industry. If you have any doubts about that, you should examine the back story of the huge worldwide bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey.
Full story at The Telegraph