The other day, Fresh Air with Terry Gross interviewed Ken Auletta, the author of the “Publish or Perish” New Yorker article about whether the iPad and the Kindle could “save” the publishing industry (which I mentioned here). The interview is about 20 minutes long and can be listened from that page, or forms the first 20 minutes of the April 27th Fresh Air podcast.
The complete transcript is not on that page, but some highlights are. One of the points Auletta brings up is what happens to the independent bookstore in the age of the e-book:
"As e-books expand exponentially — they’re expected one day to reach 25 to 40 percent of all books published — what does this do to bookstores? Already, independent bookstores are already down to 10 percent of all books sold. The problem with that is that independent bookstores have a staff of people who you tend to know, they are people who really are noted for reading many books and for spotting that first-time novel or that nonfiction book by a new author. And that word of mouth, and their recommendations have helped spur sales for years. And the worry is: What replaces that? If you’re a bookstore, which is selling a book, let’s say, for $26 can’t compete with an e-book selling for $13."
Gross also asks Auletta about the subsequent decision by Random House to let William Styron’s estate publish some of his e-books elsewhere (which I covered here). It’s an interesting interview, to be sure.
