Digital Inc.: From Print to E-Book—Inside the Transformation of the Book Industry

Literary agent and former PW contributor Curtis (This Business of Publishing) delivers a stimulating and in-depth chronicle of publishing’s digital revolution. The account begins with a recap of Curtis’s publishing career, during which he launched one of the first e-book publishers, E-Reads, in 1999, a move he confesses “was ill-considered if not utterly reckless.” But he was determined to find new ways for authors to connect with readers and to make publishing more efficient. He also helped pioneer book proposals sent via email as well as automated royalty-accounting models that are still used today. Elsewhere, Curtis recounts the e-book pricing court battles of the 2010s involving Amazon, Apple, and the Big Five publishers, asserting that Amazon’s “arrogant, predatory and intransigent policies,” such as its refusal to raise the price of new e-books from $9.99, provoked the conflict, while acknowledging that the publishers teamed up with Apple to combat the online retailer’s domination of the e-book business, making Amazon “literally and legally” the victim of a conspiracy. Throughout, Curtis shares colorful stories of his clients and publishing associates, as when he recounts mystery novelist Harlan Ellison calling him on Easter, after discovering a typo in a just-published book, and urging Curtis to call the publisher, in church, and demand that he destroy all copies. Also included are selection of the year-in-review poems that Curtis published in PW from 1985 to 2024 and an annotated E-Reads book contract. Publishing professionals will find this fascinating. (Jan.)