Stumbled across Mark Coker's opinion piece for CNN this morning. The owner of SMASHWORDS paints a scary picture of the future of publishing and what the recent Justice Department action could ultimately mean for all.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/15/opinion/coker-book-publishing/index.html
An interesting article, Kevin. When the government gets involved, more regulation and dictation on how a business should run, it inevitably ends up bad for the business/industry they're trying to 'help' or 'improve'.
ReplyDeleteI see no reason for ebooks to cost more than a mass market paperback, but I also see no reason to enable a distributor of ebooks to sell at a loss so that later domination of a market can ensue. That's kind of what China does.
Readers and authors will be best served when businesses are allowed to compete in price and services, not when the government works to arrange and control the playing field.
Leveling of the field where necessary? That's another story.
I'm not thrilled with any of it, Terry. I hope traditional publishing survives and even thrives and can find a level to co-exist with e-publishing.
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