A less-well known group of literary figures have taken an opposite approach to championing books -- by capitalizing on the very changes that have even spooked thriller novelist James Patterson.

Why are retailers such as the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and Amazon giving self-published ebooks such merchandising love?

Once upon a time, authors wrote big books about big topics. The competition was Freudian: whoever had the longest one could brag the most. Today, however, neither authors nor readers seek size from their books.

The printed book will survive as long as the generation that grew up with the printed book remains an economic factor in its survival. When that generation passes into history, the digital bookshelf will be the dominant technology for the reading public.

It's that time of year when book people polish their crystal balls and make predictions for the year ahead. I bring you, my dear reader, my epic predictions for 2013.

Writing a novel is an adventure, or certainly should be. If you like to write -- and I've never understood those writers who proudly declare that they...

1. Don't assume everyone will wake up the day your book comes out and rush out to buy it . (No one can buy a book they have never heard of.)

Everyone's a headline writer on Twitter. Technology mainstreamed words the way cheap, mass-manufactured automobiles made everyone a driver. Who, these days, needs a livery cab?

Publishers need a new operating system. Here are three core features that would make it work.

Book publishing as we know it is dying. Publishers don't want to recognize this reality, because they can't imagine what else they'll do for a living once their companies collapse. But collapse they will, and here's why.

For 500 years, the methods and practices of book publishing remained largely unchanged, but today the industry finds itself faced with the greatest challenges since Gutenberg.

E-books are praised in terms of what they aren't: heavy, tree killers, limited in distribution, of fixed text size. Not enough focus has been put on what an e-book itself could become.

Amazon yesterday launched a broadside against competing ebook retailers when it introduced a new program that requires authors to remove their books from competing retailers.

I've been intrigued by Richard Eoin Nash since the time he ran the indie press Soft Skull Press in the 2000s. His new enterprise is Red Lemonade/Cursor, a reader/participant-oriented publishing venture hoping to take full advantage of the social potential of new media.

Previously, publishing has been about creating engaging, affordable physical storytelling experiences that fill our bookshelves and share our lives.

Last month a fellow bibliophile, someone with whom I work at a bookstore in Portland, Ore., described one of Kindle's newest TV commercials. In it, a ...

Just like with the newspaper industry, the digital world has disrupted the traditional book publishing industry, destroying business models and sendin...

This long post is a primer on what's happening / happened to publishing, and also some models for revenue going forward... The models, of course, are...

Until recently, if a publisher refused to publish an author's book, it limited an author's ability to reach readers. Now, the e-book printing press is free and available to all.

I wish to restore what I believe to be the natural balance of things, an ecosystem of writing and reading. Not out of nostalgia but fundamentally because every time culture becomes more democratic, it becomes better.

The smart money says that things will get worse before they get better. Publishers will have to start thinking more like software start-ups. Are you ready for some aspirin yet?

When it comes to publishing, there is a certain recipe for success. And while nothing is guaranteed, there are significant activities which must happen in order for your book to have a chance at success.

Four of publishing's leaders filled a massive ballroom to capacity and then some in New York City on Tuesday morning as Digital Book World kicked off ...