The future of publishing

Currently the process of getting a book published can seem quite daunting. From a publishers view point there can be many risk involved with publishing an unknown writer. The process of printing, distributing and advertising a book can also be quite a financial burden. It is not often that publishers are lucky enough to find writers like J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter Series. With this being said publishers are quite wary of who they plan to publish because of the likelihood that a book may fail to sell.

In the current day and age of technology many readers are turning towards the internet to receive their literary fix. Newspaper companies can agree that consumers are also starting to turn towards the internet versus reading the old black and whites. As a twenty-something year old I can attest to the fact that I much rather read something off a computer screen then off a piece of paper. I am not sure whether it is the flashy colors and lights of my monitor or the simplicity of using this resource that attracts me to reading documents online.

Authors are also making the realization, that the internet may be the best new way to share their works. Websites like LuLu.com allow authors to publish their books at a low cost. In the case of LuLu the author bares the financial risk in printing as many or as few copies in whatever style they wish to print in. The websites also allows users to sell their books through media streams like Amazon.com. In the current economy, traditional publishing houses are suffering from major cut backs (CNN.com). Currently, I feel that larger publishing companies should look into creating segments in their company that allow writers to create printed material at a very low risk and cost for the publishing company. Currently Lulu business model creates very low risk for the actual business and places most of the risk on the author.