On the plus side, internet publishing makes it much easier to get one's work to market, increasing the likelihood that, in the future, people will still read good writing, which is something we can justifiably worry about. With all the competition in "entertainment" (the profit-oriented category of human endeavor that has replaced the aesthetics-oriented category "the arts") literature has precious little to recommend it. It offers no eye-popping special effects, just print on a page. It provides no instant gratification, but demands rather a considerable investment of time to reap its rewards. It is no lazy sit-back-and-enjoy, since one is required to think while reading, and use one's imagination.
Certainly it is fiercely expensive to pay people to perform all the tasks needed to publish a book in physical form, from evaluating submitted manuscripts to manuscript editing to typesetting to copyediting to book-designing to printing to binding to distributing to publicity to retailing. With all of these specialties involved, it's no wonder that there's very little profit to be made in the book industry.
This situation is tougher in some countries, like the United States, where a Supreme Court decision ("Thor Power Tools") significantly increased the tax liability on printed copies of books stored in warehouses and not yet sold. So high is this liability that most publishers avoid warehousing as much as possible; if a book isn't going to sell out quickly, it's not going to be printed.
In the past, the very difficulty of publishing (physical) books created a kind of selectivity - something was far more likely to be really good if it was going to make it into print. Or, put conversely, if someone wrote a really good manuscript, it was bound to be published; the book houses felt they had a public duty to bring good works before the public.
That is to say, publishers used to publish on the basis of not profit but quality. The first works of many of the greatest authors - Faulkner, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Salinger, for instance - did not sell very many copies, and in fact the publishers expected them not to sell well, but the publishers knew these writers were good, and knew that some day they would be widely recognized for their goodness, and so they stuck by them.
Today, that would never happen. Publishing decisions are based not on quality but on quick profitability - hence (and I could use myself as an example) many great books languish unpublished while a lot of absolute sniveling crap gets heavily promoted. If I had submitted a book like my
novel "Rats Live on no Evil Star" in the 1930s or '40s, you can be sure it would have been quickly published, despite the economic difficulties during the Great Depression and World War II. Already a few hundred people have read it, minimally published though it is, and every one of them has come away from it saying it is one of the best novels he or she has ever read. But, nevertheless, I continue to shop it around from publisher to publisher, in three languages and several countries, and rarely do I even get a serious acknowledgement.
Which is not necessarily to blame the publishing industry. Today, a lot of would-be authors think that book house editors are heartless, tasteless ogres who irrationally and unjustifiably refuse to see that their writings are the next best-seller. But the truth is, with so little profit in the industry, that, unless yours is a household name, or the book or is a quick-sell item, or the book has a movie or toy-industry tie-in, it's not at all likely to be published. Hence all the books written (or so it is claimed) by actors and politicians and convicted criminals (but I repeat myself), and all the magnificent tomes such as "1,001 Uses for a Dead Cat".
On the minus side of electronic publishing:
While the e-book cuts right out most of the costs associated with physical publishing, one downside is that this eliminates a lot of jobs in an economy hurting for employment. And another downside is that valuable skills are being lost. Even physically printed books these days are commonly riddled with errors of typography, grammar, and spelling - if a copyeditor went over the galleys at all (which is increasingly doubtful), then that copyeditor, rushed for time and perhaps poorly trained by a public education which these days fails to convey the rudiments of proper English, utterly failed to do a good job of editing.
What is more, electronic publishing also denies the book lover certain fine tactile and olfactory splendors - the satisfaction of feeling a good book in your hands, the sound as the page is turned, the wonderful scents of ink and glue. It's simply not the same thing to curl up in bed with a Kindle or a Nook.
And, since e-publishing makes it so easy to get one's writing out there before the public, it exponentially multiplies the available amount of unmitigated shameless garbage. Thousands of people can indulge their little ego-trip of self-delusion that their poorly written derivative trash is going to be famous and make them lots of money - eventually they find out that, even through Amazon and the like, nobody will download their turgid nonsense even if it's offered for free.
Yet, if e-publishing helps to keep great literature alive - it is gratifying how many of the classic works of the past are available in electronic format for free - then, with all my qualms, I grudgingly must embrace it.
Moreover, in countries like Panama, where I live, it might help increase the literacy rate, and the interest-in-good-literature rate. And since, for expatriates like me there are virtually no English-language bookstores in the country and the cost of importing either one's existing book collection or mail-ordering new books from abroad is quite costly, one has little choice but to read e-books.
But what about the long-term future?
Electronic records - as anyone who has suffered from a computer crash or the loss of important data for one or another reason - are extremely vulnerable to inadvertent destruction. There is unlikely in some future age the sound of joy from archaeologists finding a treasure-trove of classics like the Nag Hammadi Library, for e-books will have long before have been reduced to mere a random static of free electrons.
What is more, even physical books these days are mostly printed on poor-quality high-acid-content paper, and won't survive more than a few decades at best - especially with the increasing amounts of corrosive pollution in the atmosphere.
Third, public education in most countries is being downsized and defunded, and the emphasis being put not on a well-rounded liberal arts education-for-its-own-sake, but on learning skills sufficient to be competent at some mindless trade. People are being trained by the profit-hungry market to want instant mindless entertainments that require no effort, that "relax" one after a hard work day. Literature is going to be of less and less appeal to such people.
A fourth factor, as noted above, is that the entire publishing industry (from printer to retailer) is run not by people who believe in literature for its own sake, but by bean-counters; if there is no profit in it, it's simply not going to be published, no matter how great a work of art it may be. I expect even free electronic versions of the classics to disappear soon.
So there is a serious possibility that all the literature of this age and past ages, that some unpublished Shakespeare or Dante or Murasaki of today or tomorrow may never be known and appreciated by the world of literature lovers. There is a serious possibility that the very lack of good literature will lead to the disappearance of literature lovers themselves. Tragically and ironically, the concern I raise here may be nonsensical in future ages.
I can hope that the electronic book will save literature, but of that - at this point in history - I cannot be sure.
DISCLAIMER: James David Audlin has written many books, a few of which have been published; most of them (he has thrown in the towel) are now available in electronic format at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JamesDavidAudlin - and in softcover through Createspace.com - and some in hardcover through Lulu.com
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