Whither Publishing?

The proof copy of Newcastlewest Books' first release arrived. I'm wondering if I've joined in a venture that's already outdated. 

While the physical book represents something concrete, we expect sales to be made in the e-book, not the print version. There is an immediacy to electronic publishing, the ability to read something when you first discover it.

Getting a book into a brick and mortar store is no easy task for a small start-up like Newcastlewest Books. The competition for shelf space means we're out of our league in terms of payola to the book vendors to put our work on a front table or facing out on the shelf.

Indeed, the high price of advertising alone is driving us, and many other authors, to rely on social media to get the message out. More and more, authors will Twitter and Facebook away to reach their readers, leaving behind the expensive print adverts.

Publisher Nicholas Callaway has turned from publishing books to creating apps for books, seeing it as the future of reading. Interactive books will be more than words on a page, due  entirely to advances in computer technology.

But do we need a novel to do  more than tell a story that entertains or enlightens or teaches?

By adding features to the written word, do we risk overstimulating the reader until they've lost the thread of the plot?

Perhaps a map would help to explain a story's locale in ways a writer would not, because it would be dull going and a picture's worth one thousand words. In general, the application for a book could serve well in some instances, but a story should not need much embellishment.

Too much going on, too many tangents to follow, could spoil the experience of getting lost in a  novel.

The app may not be for us, but we're going to have to embrace the e-book if we're to get our words out there. After all, what good is a story if there's no one listening to you tell it?