How many of you out there are writers or aspire to the trade?

Are you aware of how much the industry is changing and of how much you should be taking that into account in your own writing activities?

We are only a few short years away from the first authors who will be published by majors, but who will never actually 'see print'. Their work will only be available in digital formats, not as mass market paper books. Those authors, if they see print at all, will only be for individual orders as POD (print on demand).

I've spoken to authors in the past few weeks who have told me they sell hundreds of 'books' a day, but never with a page printed. On launching one title, one such author quoted a single day's tally of sales as being over seven thousand units. That's just one title, for just one day! I've also read the thoughts of established authors who are wildly angry about what they see as the destruction of 'quality' publishing or the 'traditional' publishing industry. Such a charge sounds serious, but instead is laughable as its loudest proponent in the past week writes pulp fiction, which last time I checked has never been associated with quality.

What the publishing industry was five years ago is different to what it is today. The way things are going, you won't be able recognise it in five more years.

With the music industry's implosion still fresh in mind, traditional publishers have no excuse to not heed that lesson and adapt. I hope they do, and in the process open up and change. They need to take advantage of the cost savings the digital age offers, and to use them to not just profit themselves, but also their authors and to broaden their range.

Are you planning for that day?