Barry Eisler and Lee Child weigh in on the “Dead Trees is a Dead Model” discussion
Recently, Barry Eisler added a guest post to M.J. Rose’s Buzz, Balls, & Hype blog, titled “Dead Trees is a Dead Model.” The focus of the post was to discuss how authors, literary agents, publishers, and booksellers need to change their business strategies to adapt to the advent of ebooks.
“And while I agree that paper books will survive in the era of electronic books, they’ll do so only as a niche growing in the compost the current publishing industry will leave behind. This is hardly ‘thriving.’”
The post sparked a hearty (and healthy) debate, with many readers and authors chiming in with their own comments, including Lee Child, who argued that e-readers might not be adopted one key readership:
“That’s where the bulk of our audience is. Infrequent, almost reluctant purchasers … but as a universe there are so many of them in terms of raw numbers that they form our base. What are the chances that such people would self-identify up front as readers, and pre-equip themselves with hardware?”
The debate continues today with Barry’s second guest post on the topic, that includes a response to Lee’s comments and, you guessed it, Lee’s counter-response.
And you can read his original post, with Lee’s comments, here.
Free chapters of Barry Eisler’s new novel, Fault Line will be featured right here on Blood on the Page next week. Then in early May, we’ll have free chapters from Lee Child’s brand new Jack Reacher novel, Gone Tomorrow, before it goes on sale.
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