There are some publishers who are embracing the new electronic realities of publishing

You’re the primary person responsible for the marketing of your book. Publishers don’t use marketing to cause books to sell well—they help books that are already selling well to sell even better. To use a pyromaniac analogy, publishers are accelerants, not sparks.

However, there are some publishers who are embracing the new electronic realities of publishing. 

O’Reilly Media is one example. Let’s take a look at its approach to publishing: 

Direct sales. O’Reilly sells books directly to people from its website. It doesn’t try to preserve a multi-tiered distribution model that doesn’t necessarily serve customers better. 

Multiple formats. O’Reilly provides ebooks in PDF, EPUB, MOBI, DAISY, and Android APK formats as well as printed-on-paper. 

DRM-free. O’Reilly publishes ebooks that are free of digital rights management (DRM). (More about DRM in chapter 20: “Self-Publishing Issues.”) 

Easy access. Customers can download their O’Reilly books in as many formats as many times for as many devices as they want.

Syncing. People can sync their O’Reilly books to Dropbox (a cloud-based storage service) accounts. (More about Dropbox in chapter 5: “Tools for Writers.”) 

Online subscription. O’Reilly created the Safari Books Online brand, which provides online subscription access to books, videos, and interactive learning tools. 

Community. There is a question-and-answer forum as well as a community forum for O’Reilly customers. Conferences. O’Reilly conducts conferences around the world about the topics in its books. 

Multimedia. O’Reilly offers webcasts by authors as well as online educational courses and certification. O’Reilly is the way of the future: multiple formats, DRM-free, and expanding the definition of publishing to include multimedia learning, community forums, and face-to-face conferences.

APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book by Guy Kawasaki, Shawn Welch