Just read a great post from Clay Shirky, a guest blogger at Boing Boing. Clay’s is a response to an article written in the New York Times by James Gleick, who advises book publishers to walk into the future by visiting the past. They should embrace the “book”, that is, the ink, the paper, the beauty.
Gleick lives in a strange land of fantasy.
Book publishers are facing a 100 mph head wind; a bad economy and a rapidly changing marketplace. It’s time to invent new models and discover new sales channels that cater to readers, not just book lovers. If publishers embrace the past, they won’t be around to see the future.