As a result, publishing heavyweights, including Bertelsmann, Houghton Mifflin, and Macmillan USA, among others, are now trying to ride the electronic-publishing wave, rather than drown in its wake. A growing number of progressive publishers are definitely ready for the change. However, it's unclear whether these moves are rumblings of a major revolution or just another example of how the Internet has opened new channels that supplement, rather than substitute for, established business models. For example, Reciprocal's Digital Clearing Services modules allow companies to feed usage and customer information back into financial and customer service systems. Calif. But even more dramatic are the cost savings for the direct digital-publishing model, in which print production costs are cut out completely.
Authors also save time and money when publishing straight to a digital format.
As on the publisher's side, overhead costs for authors are also reduced. But I think publishers aren't going to give back those margins for long. Loosening content reins Under the current print-publishing model, publishing companies serve as gatekeepers who have the infrastructure in place to weed out what won't succeed on the open market. However, digital distribution is dramatically changing that cost limitation and opening the door for new authors and content formats. Because of these eliminated costs, both Fatbrain and Ebookstand allow writers to basically publish at their own discretion, provided they agree to contracted guidelines that include guarantees against plagiarism and offensive content such as pornography.