Media DemocratOZation

Still shocked that Shambala Sun, an otherwise wonderful publication, does not review books published exclusively for digital download. This bothers me not just because it means A Zen Master In Oz will not be reviewed in Shambala Sun but because how it stands in opposition to the inevitable wave of media democratization that has been steadily growing over the past couple of decades. We've seen well established writers like Stephen King (Riding the Bullett - 2000, The Plant - 2000 and Ur - 2009), write books exclusively for download and have tremendous success. While I'm not Mr. King by a looooong shot when it comes to literary success and celebrity, the tremendous numbers of people that downloaded his stories demonstrates that there is a large audience out there quite happy to read a book they have to download. In 2010 Amazon.com sold more "e-books" than it did paperbacks for the first time in its history. This trend will continue to grow as Kindle, Nook, iPad, iPhone and other such devices become more and more commonplace.
This puts big publishers in a precarious position. They exist because they controlled the means through which an author's work could be experienced by the audience. The Publishers dictated what got published, how it was distributed and where it could be purchased. They had these powers because they had the resources to pay for books to be published - covering the cost of paper, binding, printing, art work etc. In this new world the need for a physical "book" has been eliminated by technology and thus the things that the publishers could provide an author have been made obsolete. This means that the publishers are no longer the gate keepers of what can make it out to the public.
Editors and the heads of publishing houses, which are quite often owned by big conglomerates with their own corporate agendas to preserve, selected what books could be released to the market. This meant that they got to act as an elite group of shepherds guiding the collective consciousness. Thankfully, they have been relegated to nigh-dinosaur status. The only thing they still have in their arsenal are large advertising budgets. This though, can be combated through hard work and clever grassroots advertising efforts.
The same thing has happened to other sectors of the media, most notably in the music industry. Anybody with the gumption has the ability to put their work out into the world. In the not too distant future, even Grandma will be totally comfortable with going on a website, plugging in her interests and have the website recommend books whose descriptions match her interests. This 21st Century Grandma will also have no problem selecting a book or two from the recommendations and then downloading them onto her Kindle, iPhone or whatever platform she is using. 21st Century Grandma won't give a damn about who the publisher of the books she downloaded is. She, like the vast majority of readers, only purchases books based on their content not what branch of a corporation approved it for the masses.
21st Century Grandma and 21st Century Grandkids will also have no problem with not going into the often fetishized environs of a bookstore. Small books stores only survive these days if the owners have managed to find a niche to fill. Otherwise, they are limping buy year from year. This is because of the rise of mega-bookstore chains like Barnes & Noble and Borders. These stores, with their phoney hipster coffee shops and rows of non-book related chintz have dominated the book selling universe. The buyers for these chains gained huge influence on the publishing world since the vast majority of books being sold came through them, as well as big box monsters like Walmart etc. These buyers in effect determined the kinds of books being published, which were the books they sold the most of. There was no room for the new, weird or experimental in this landscape.
The death grip the big publishers and bookstore chains has had on the public is being loosened every day. It will probably take a big break out success coming from the e-book world to finally put a nail in the coffin of the oligarchy the corporate world held over the world's literary scene. In the meantime, things are developing to a point of critical mass from which that breakout will launch. Anybody not prepared for that moment will be left behind as the world races forward.