Caldecott-Winning illustrator David Diaz spoke about perfect things that don't change over time. Like the chair. And a fork.
And how in music there have been 10 major format changes in 100 years.
He thinks that in books, we're right around where 8 tracks were.
But he doesn't see problems with this - he sees opportunities. In a world where publishing a picture book costs a publisher $100,000.- they're looking for something to sell enough copies to cover that risk. In a digital world where publishing a digital picture book costs five or ten thousand dollars - that's a much lower risk for the publisher.
"Opportunities will grow exponentially for us!"
And when a book comes out digitally, it already IS international, and the potential audience is enormous.
He cited how TV has changed where we went from 5 stations to hundreds in a few decades - and how each station is now targeted to a niche market.
We may not be sure exactly what the future will look like, but David says we need to
"hold on. Publishing will be HUGE. Bigger than it has ever been before!"
Kindle books equalize big Eastern publishers and small presses. For example, my SciFi series "America's Galactic Foreign Legion" is experiencing sustained daily multiple sales, even though AGFL was published by a small press.
ReplyDeleteHow am I successfully competeing with the big dogs? Because many readers now will only buy and read Kindle books, and Kindle sales are growing. Even if a shopper sees a book at a book store, they are apt to still buy it for less on Kindle.
This Christmas there will be an explosion of Kindle ownership. We are living through the beginning of a great change in publishing and book distribution.