Ursula Le Guin, author of one of the pillars of modern fantasy, the Earthsea Trilogy, and some fantastic science fiction, including “The Lathe of Heaven”, speaks out against greed in the publishing industry:
I believe the brick and mortar publishing industry as it exists today is dead. With self publishing and print on demand, anyone can reach a vast audience through Amazon and other web sites. The Internet is causing the same sea change in music (Napster, itunes, youtube), news (slashdot, msnbc, youtube), television (youtube, Netflix), and retail (ebay, Amazon, craigslist).
I expect that the publishers who survive will do so by finding the best writers and helping them promote their works to a wider audience. Those publishers who only want to publish the big names in paper will gradually lose relevance as more people move to buying from Amazon. While I like to visit the bookstore to actually look at graphic novels, I can actually get a better idea whether I want to buy a book from a website, where I can have free access to the first chapter.
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