According to this article, What Does It Mean to Own a Book, by Minda Zetlin, writers need a heads up on the future of good old books on paper. When all the deals are made between Google and others like Google, with the publishers for books that can be bought and downloaded online, it is likely the writers who will be the losers.
She compares the coming downloading of books to what happened in the music industry.
Publishers have, for the most part, been remarkably slow and awkward in dealing with this new era when people read on mobile devices rather than paper. But sooner or later,
Google or someone else will come along and negotiate a subscription-based deal with the big New York publishers.
And authors will likely be out in the cold, collecting the text equivalent of four tenths of a cent per song, unless we do something about it.
This article on the site of the American Society of Journalists and Authors might be a forewarning of what is to come in the writing world. Read and tell us what you think.
The ASJA Monthly
