It’s easy to focus on the eBook Readers and eReading Devices. Their development is obviously going to have the biggest impact on how the eBook Revolution evolves, but this article at E-Reads illuminates another level to the struggle that promises to be more cutthroat and financially destructive to the traditional publishing industry.
Simply put: Until recently, publishers and writers have needed book distributors and retailers to sell their products, Amazon.com chief among them. And these are contentious relationships at the best of times as writer, publisher and retailer fight over dwindling profits. It’s been a struggle.
The new digital technology with an Internet or wireless delivery system allows publishers to sell directly to the reader, effectively cutting out the middleman.
This puts me in mind of a press release we received earlier about Indie author G. Wells Taylor selling his eBook titles directly to his readers. (No publisher. No retailer.) Without the middleman, additional costs are eliminated, and in this case the reader receives a full length novel for $1.99.  Taylor’s blog talks about his eBooks being available through the Sony Store and Barnes and Noble, at a slightly higher price which is suggestive of possible future compromises.
I think it comes back to what I’ve said before. The eBook Revolution is about content and readers. Everyone in between has to remain relevant or go extinct, yah?
