Earlier today I read this article about Sony and Smashwords inking a deal that will allow authors to self-publish their e-books through the Sony publishing portal. The deal allows authors and small publishers to go straight from manuscript to e-book publication in a matter of minutes.

So why is this important?

In the past, e-books have been viewed as the poor cousin of ‘real publishing’. They lower the barrier to entry and as such they have been viewed as the method for those who can’t really cut it or get a respectable deal. This story about Sony is just one of many warning bells that should be ringing in the minds of authors and big publishing companies – that is the bell of change.

In a recent story in Fast Company Jeff Bezos is being framed as the next Steve Jobs – probably the most visionary and disruptive figure ever to enter the music industry and now more recently the mobile phone industry. In both cases, Jobs lowered the barriers to entry for content producers and opened the flood gates by offering content in a way that nobody thought would ever take. Jobs has reshaped how we buy and consume music and he has reshaped how we use mobile phones. Is Bezos reshaping the way we will read books?

Ask yourself this question. What did you really think of the Kindle when you first learned of it? Most authors I know laughed out loud and said – “It will never work. People love their books.” The thought of reading a book on a machine to me still doesn’t feel right but look at this shot of Bezos earlier this year where he is talking about e-book sales purchased for the Kindle through Amazon:

Since the release of the new improved Kindle in February, e-book sales have jumped to 35% of Amazon’s book sales. What should stop you dead in your tracks is not just the number, 35%, but even more than that, how quickly that change occurred. We are talking a 20% increase within months. This coming year, Amazon alone is predicting e-Book sales to top $1.2 Billion. This is not some small website selling a few books, this is a website with around 4 million visitors a day dropping by.

The simple and sobering truth is that we are now living in a time where change occurs fast. When the likes of Amazon and Sony are moving in, with the media writing articles that compare what is happening in the book business to what happened in the music business, it is time to take stock. Are you preparing for a new business model? Is your work ready for global distribution in all formats? Tomorrow – the distribution costs will be almost nothing and the only game in town will be reach and marketing.

Tags: amazon, audible, audio book, audiobook, itunes, marketing, mp3, publish, publishers, publishing companies, publishing houses, self publish, sell audiobook

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 8:41 AM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.