Web marketing guru Seth Godin has long given away free copies of his book on the internet and at the same time published them in hard copy format. He espoused the idea that traditional books will become "souvenirs" of your interaction with a writer. Now he has announced he's done with traditional publishing.
On his blog he points out that in traditional publishing if you are a writer your customer isn't the reader, it's an editor at a publishing house. If an editor doesn't buy your book it doesn't get published. Then you also have to get distributors, the media, and bookstore buyers excited about your book. Only then do you reach the final audience: the reader.
Now that Godin is established, a different approach makes more sense for him:
"My audience does things like buy five or ten copies at a time and distribute them to friends and co-workers. They (you) forward blog posts and PDFs. They join online discussion forums. None of these things are supported by the core of the current corporate publishing model."
Basically, he's eliminating the middleman. He's always been ahead of the curve, so I wouldn't be surprised if many others will follow suit. Of course his advantage is that he's now built his "tribe"--lots of followers who await his next information product, whatever form it takes. For writers who don't have that massive platform, the path will still be uphill.
(For help with writing and marketing your book see my book, "Your Writing Coach," available from Amazon and other online and offline retailers. For support and group mentoring, see www.BreakthroughStrategyOnline.com)
