The biggest problem I see is between the publishing companies and ebook readers. It comes down to the medium itself: copying a paper book is a hideous hassle whereas copying a digital book in any sort of accessible format is going to be easy. The music industry has begun to deal with this in the form of "indie" productions where artist record and market their own music. I an artist becomes popular enough the big guys take a profitable interest in producing them. If most new books were independently offered in digital format for a few bucks apiece and those that go gold get papered the industry could end-run the whole ease of copy issue. The whole change would have to take place at the author's level though to bring the industry around. We're already seeing some of this with podcasting authors coming on line.
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The biggest problem I see is between the publishing companies and ebook readers. It comes down to the medium itself: copying a paper book is a hideous hassle whereas copying a digital book in any sort of accessible format is going to be easy. The music industry has begun to deal with this in the form of "indie" productions where artist record and market their own music. I an artist becomes popular enough the big guys take a profitable interest in producing them. If most new books were independently offered in digital format for a few bucks apiece and those that go gold get papered the industry could end-run the whole ease of copy issue. The whole change would have to take place at the author's level though to bring the industry around. We're already seeing some of this with podcasting authors coming on line.