For every publisher the initial “P&L” (Profit & Loss) statement arouses anxiety, self-delusion, and a classic never-ending tension between editorial instincts and marketing experience.

The basics haven’t changed that much at the publisher’s end. They have changed drastically at the bookselling end, the proverbial tail that wags the dog. The dog is the Publisher, or the Author, depending on your point of view.

An initiative in the works from the nonprofit Internet Archive to centralize the electronic distribution of commercially viable books could upend the publishing industry and declaw Amazon.com

Great bargains, you will think. In the short run. How will this trend affect Hawaii publishers and authors? And Hawaii readers? It will probably eventually drive them to ebooks, because if this is a permanent trend, it will make publishing and bookselling of regular books in Hawaii especially difficult.

“According to my math, I’d be making more money if my books were out of print, and I had my rights back.”

Disintermediation: the elimination of intermediaries in the supply chain, or cutting out the middlemen.