We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: There’s nothing new under the sun.

Okay, that’s not entirely true. There’s plenty out there that’s new, and exciting, and different. But there’s also a lot of history repeating, especially when panic and nail-biting is concerned in the publishing industry.

This article from the IBPA neatly sums up an earlier sea-change panic: the one surrounding paperbacks.

To sum up: Back in the 1930s, Pocket Books went out on a limb and introduced some very, very low-priced, cheaply bound books, intended to sell in any retail space possible for as little as possible. The whole point was to open up new distribution paths and to get more people buying books.

It was a smashing success, to say the least. The paperback is the most popular format out there today, and I suspect it will remain so for years to come – it’s accessible, portable, inexpensive, and durable. What’s not to love?

But the big publishers were scared. They saw this new format eating into their profits…and they wanted nothing to do with it. They set all sorts of requirements, like windowing and price points, that were designed to minimize the impact of the paperback. 

And you know what? The paperback didn’t cut into profits – it drove them. It got more people reading. It increased the market.

Folks, that’s what we’re up against with eBooks. It’s a new distribution channel, a new market opening, a new everything. It’s not going to cut into profits, necessarily – there’s going to have to be some reshaping of the industry, but it’s not going to bring everything tumbling down. It’s a sea change, but it’s going to be a sea change like that of paperbacks – an overall positive force.

Just you wait and see.