"Publishers are relevant," says head of Random House, Gail Rebuck, in today's Guardian. "We have practical expertise and, of course, money. We give our authors advances which enable them to concentrate on their work in hand … My idea of hell is a website with 80,000 self-published works on it – some of which might be jewels, but, frankly, who's got the time? What people want is selection and frankly that's what we do."
Selection is exactly what the new wave of specialist epublishers will be doing too. They'll:
Find the best new authors and then promote the best new authors. Authors who can already write. Who need editing, not ghosting. Who don't need to be famous in another field first. Whose careers won't rely on the whim of the big supermarket buyers. Who can be of any age and from any background.
Publishing is going back to its roots!
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