"I've decided not to publish any more books in the traditional way. 12 for 12 and I'm done. I like the people, but I can't abide the long wait, the filters, the big push at launch, the nudging to get people to go to a store they don't usually visit to buy something they don't usually buy, to get them to pay for an idea in a form that's hard to spread ... I really don't think the process is worth the effort that it now takes to make it work. I can reach 10 or 50 times as many people electronically. No, it's not 'better', but it's different. So while I'm not sure what format my writing will take, I'm not planning on it being the 1907 version of hardcover publishing any longer."
I think Seth Godin is a mediocre mind, but he's probably right about this: For his kind of huge audience—international, heavily plugged-in, concerned with the newest thing—publishing doesn't work. There are millions of ways he can push his marketing slop to eager fans, and he can probably make more money at it some other way. A lot of bloggers will make a lot of sky-is-falling hay about this, but only a very select few authors—authors who have been built up to mega-celebrity status by the publishing industry, by the way—can completely circumvent the publishing machine like this.
