As for authors who bypass publishers, that is fine for the truly talented authors who could most likely get published by the house of their choice anyway.  The problem is with authors who might have good ideas, but do not have the expertise to polish their grammar, structure, and readability, or lack the skills to lay out a book in an aesthetically pleasing matter.  Then there are the authors who have a poor idea, or a poorly executed one, but insist on publishing what they think will be the next Best Seller. We already see this with online POD companies whose catalogs are more trash than treasure. Most authors need a publisher to help them turn a rough-cut good idea into a polished product…especially most authors who think they don’t need a publisher.

I think we are witnessing a blurring and merging of ALL media that is eventually going to make it possible for anyone to produce anything in any combination of presentations, but it will be impossible to sort through the quadrillions of poor and mediocre productions to find stuff of real quality.

This should be an interesting week ahead.