In case you missed my last post, scroll down and check it out, because I made myself think. It’s an odd sensation. I didn’t mean to drag this out, but I’ve been pondering the entire concept of changing the way we think about publishing.

And once again, I go back to Extra Credits. Seriously, go check these out, and as you watch, every time they say something about the game industry, substitute the publishing industry instead.

This time, I’m watching their episode about innovation. I’ll sum up how I think it applies to publishing. There are two groups constantly at odds with each other: big corporations, and indie groups. In gaming, this is the people who put games on the shelves at Walmart that have mutli-million dollar graphic and game design budgets vs the app you just downloaded for your smartphone that didn’t cost you anything, and has a few hiccups, but you can’t seem to live without. (I’m over generalizing, but you get the point).

And I’m assuming you already know what it means in publishing. The issue is the same in both industries. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. But there has to be a happy medium, right? Something that gives us the best of both worlds? Or at least, some of the better aspects of both worlds?

How do you make the innovation of indie into mainstream?

The movie industry has started to do it. Fox Searchlight, Mirimax, etc.

The book indistry has started to do it too. Carina Press is one example. From their About Us page:

Carina Press is a digital-first imprint from Harlequin. A natural extension to the Harlequin business; Carina Press builds on our digital strength and gives us greater flexibility in the type of editorial we acquire from authors and offer to readers. We connect authors with a great story to tell, with readers who will love to read it.

Read between the lines, or in other places on their site, and basically they’re a digital only imprint with a large corporate backing, but the freedom and independence to publish books that are amazing, but don’t scream big $$$ to big publishers.

I suspect the Carina Press venture has been successful, because Harlequin has started another all-digital line with a similar premise. Harper Voyager is dipping their toes in the water too. Another company I think is doing this really well, but without the backing of a Big 6, is Entangled Publishing.

They’re not the only companies doing this, but they’re the three I’m most familiar with. They’re working to bridge that gap between the freedom of indie publishing, and the marketing/public presence of big corporations.

They blur the line. And when I talk about changing how we think, and the changes in the publishing industry, I think this is something we need to keep in mind.

With the onslaught of anyone-can-publish books (and you know, know, a lot of them are bad because those 1.4 million books on amazon.com can’t all be good), hell, even with the sterilization of big-publisher books, readers will burn out. They’ll begin to wonder how they can find a good book when all the reviews are madlibs of ‘this is good’, and all the titles and covers look the same.

Readers won’t all blame self-publishing or big corporations, they’ll just know they’re not enjoying the books they’re buying. And they’ll stop buying.

Unless we can get past this rift, take the best from both worlds, and learn to not only co-exist, but to learn from each other on a business level, and even work together more and more.

As more of these companies step forward that represent the middle ground, more options become available, and I think it’s something we have to seriously look at if we’re going to keep readers fascinated and enthralled and living in the worlds we’ve created.

The question is, can these new business models maintain this hybrid method of operation, or will they eventually find themselves sliding into the seas of non-distinctness that plague both their ancestors?