Have books printed on paper gone away?
“Maybe. The generational thing, you know. It’s possible that you may not need paper-based books anymore. It may be possible. But you’re still going to need people to write the books. You’re still going to need people who edit the books. You’re still going to need the publishers of the book, the people who convey the book to the purveyors of the books. You still need a producer of the product.” — Jeff Herman, New York literary agent and author of the writing aide, 2000-2001 Writer’s Guide to Book Editors, Publishers and Literary Agents. Are we still going to need traditional publishers? Because there’s a group of companies that have come onto the Internet who are trying to bypass that entire system. “They’ll just become alternative publishers. If they don’t generate good product, they won’t make it. They haven’t gotten very far yet, and they’re not going to get very far unless they can generate competitive product. That’s the bottom line. Books that are not professionally edited are no
