How Print on Demand Will Save the Publishing Industry

It’s me with another crackbrained prediction about the future of publishing. (We’ll ignore the fact that every crackbrained prediction I’ve ever made has come to pass.) And the one I’m going to make today is going to come to pass, too.

Let me start with a question or two. How many of you check on your amazon.com ranking? And how many of you are aware that unpublished books are also ranked on amazon? That is, as soon as your forthcoming book is listed on amazon, it begins getting ranked. Even though it’s not scheduled for five or six months, an eagerly anticipated book may post a strong ranking. Now, how can that be? How can a book show up in the rankings when it hasn’t even been published? 

Way too often main characters in suspense fiction are like show lofts in new developments: they’re designed within an inch of their lives. You’ve been there: you walk through the cement dust and the broker opens the door and suddenly you’re in a million-dollar big bland space planned to hit the ninety-ninth percentile smack between the eyes. It’s sensible, it’s considered … except there’s a thing in there: maybe a dead tree painted white in a pot, or a big rock in the middle of the floor, or a black-and-nickel Les Paul leaning against a four-cab Marshall stack, buzzing and crackling and humming. It’s something that says hey, dude, you’re not really boring, no sir, you’re hip, you’re out there, you’re on the edge, you respond, you like this apartment.