The Death Of Traditional Publishing

The Death Of Traditional Publishing


–Michael Levin, Michael@businessghost.com

The publishing industry died last week. The economic meltdown was the meteorite that hit the dinosaur right in the forehead. The only surprise is that traditional publishing lasted this long.
The firings of industry leaders, mass layoffs at top publishers, and the decision of at least one other major publisher to cease accepting new book proposals for consideration, taken together, indicate the end of the influence of the major publishers. Sure, they’ll be there to push celebrity books onto a celebrity-besotted public, through non-traditional book outlets like Wal-Mart and your local supermarket. But the business that began with editors who loved books and published what they wanted is vanishing, a victim of its own inability to find a reason for being in the Internet and print-on-demand world.