Run Scared or Jump for Joy?

It’s not every day the transportation industry gets a new medium.

But that is what the railroad companies had with the invention of increasingly sophisticated airplanes.

It’s not every day publishers get a new medium.

But that is what we have with the invention of increasingly sophisticated digital reading devices.

The problem for railroad companies is they didn’t really care about transporting people. What they cared about was clinging to an old model of business and service.

The problem with some publishers is that they don’t care about conveying messages. What they care about is clinging to an old model of business and service.

Some publishers get it, though. They are excited about this new medium. “Wow!” they’re saying. “We get to convey messages in a medium that transcends the limits of the printed page! Imagine videos, hyperlinks, images, audio. We get to dream with authors about the best ways possible of conveying these messages.”

We live in a moment when some folks in publishing are anxious and overwhelmed, while others are excited and overjoyed. Many, of course, are somewhere in between or waffle back and forth.

I say, let’s rejoice!