RE: "The Elusive E-book" and the elephant in the room

Jon;
 
People are reading more, there is no doubt about it. 
 
But what are we, as e-publishers, really offering?
 
Nothing different than paper publishers. 
 
A way for readers to discover a new world, learn something new about human existence, learn some new or better way of doing something.
 
Despite the terrabites of free stuff out there, we all would have to concede a lot of it is dreck, now that we have the internet, anyone with a connection can have a platform and prattle on well into the decades.
 
If book sales stopped, then I'd be worried that people no longer are willing to pay for quality, especially with so many "free alternatives" To follow your line of thinking to it's natural conclusion, then there should be no one paying for anything since all they have to do is fire up their computer.
 
This hasn't happened and I don't believe it will ever happen.
 
A paying structure will always encourage (hopefully) the best and brightest to take pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. 
 
As a former journalist, it is often bandied about how we would do it for free. This has helped keep salaries low and a complete fallacy I might add. But I'm sure doctors also like to help people but no one goes into medicine expecting to "get by"
 
Same thing with authors. They (we) write because we have a story we want to tell but also with the hope that said story will strike a chord and enable us to tell subsequent stories as our living that enables us to put food on the table.
 
You may get one book out of a person for the "sheer joy of telling that story." But without some economic incentives, there may be more than a few "on-off" authors. They may write that "brilliant" book, but you'd be hard pressed to get anything more out of them as they have bills to pay and families to feed.
 
It's simple economics. People would prefer to earn their living doing what they love. For some it is medicine, others teaching, and writers want to earn their living writing.
 
Take away that economic incentive and we will see very few new writers indeed. 
Aaron J. WalkerPublisher
http://www.walkbroadpublishing.com
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