Why book publishing needs to Change

Traditional publishing is entrenched in brick and mortar ways of selling - Marketing via an ad on the NYT for publicity, real stores for distribution, printing and of course, choosing which book to print. After that you negotiate, edit multiple rounds and book version, plan the tour - You see why this is an entire industry in itself.

However:

1. Manufacturing a book in paper no longer remains your core competency
2. People can get a book in many ways - getting into a store is not critical
3. Any author can now become an Independent Publisher
4. More people are reading blogs over books - leading me to my next point...
5. Convenience Matters! Online delivery of ebooks is faster and easier to get a book into a reader's hands - People will pay for this
6. See what happened to the music industry?? This year, the number of records produced was the same level as that in 1960. Same thing in the newspaper industry - traditional methods need to be adapted
7. Including social buzz elements into the book promotions...
8. And hence, connecting fans closer to authors in a community. This is why book blogs are growing so much
9. People will pay and spend time reading books that they hear about from passionate book bloggers, communities and fellow fans

All this boils down to:
Identify your fans, count them, make a community, THEN decide which book to sell to them, sell it the easiest way possible for the reader to get the book, get The Fans to spread it.

What do you think? Are you happy with the way things are, and paying the same amount for an ebook as a paper book? Does that seem fair? Comment away!