These companies aim to compete with the traditional publishers with new product offerings and without the expenses of regular printing. While it is good to see competition in the industry, the epublishers have been to slow to convert readers to ebooks and they face increasing competition from traditional publishers who are entering the ebook arena. However, on the plus side for the new epublishers, technology companies, including Microsoft, are working on rapidly developing software and hardware to turn book lovers into ebook readers. Even individual authors have challenged the style of traditional publishing. Horror author Stephen King is publishing a serialized novel solely on the Web with early success.
Authors fit in at the same place as always.
They are the most important element of ebooks, just as they are in books. Now the author just has new formats to consider, new publishers to consider and of course, new rights to consider. Just as in book publishing, a variety of electronic publishing styles exist. Authors have to weigh the differences among these new ebook publishers, while also still considering the old publishers when making a decision about where to submit or publish their work. Some authors with technical skills may even avoid publishers altogether and create their own ebooks themselves.