Writing/Reading Changes

Last week I talked about Writing Changes, focusing mostly on the publishing changes and the effect on writing. Many of the publishers were reluctant to accept the ebook.  Back about 2000, the readers were on small devices like the Rocket and the Palm reader.  They were small and difficult to use. People didn’t understand the concept and the early ebooks were more of a novelty. There weren’t that many available and they were expensive. The marketing wasn’t that good.

Then Amazon brought out the Kindle in 2007, marketed it, and ebooks went wild, which was good for Amazon. Everyone wanted one. Kindles were a big seller and Amazon had a large selection of ebooks, easy to find and purchase. Other book sellers developed and brought out their own e-readers.  Kobo in Canada developed one and bought and sold ebooks. Barnes and Noble developed the Nook but it was originally not available in outside the US.

Since Kindle the ebook market has opened up and continued to grow.  Writers sold to small publishers and moved away from some of the larger publishers.  And then realized they could publish their own books.

Today we have the hybrid author. They publish in both regular publishing and e-publishing.  The options for writers have changed over the years and now writers have multiple options and the freedom to write in mixed and multiple genres. It’s an exciting market. Who knows what’s next?

Where do you think the writing and publishing market is going?