get yer Barnes & Noble right here

For anyone who doubted my argument about the potential obsolescence of the novel as a storytelling medium, here’s an interesting bit of news – it seems that Barnes & Noble might put itself up for sale following a 45% drop in share price over the last year. Some of that is undoubtedly the continually worsening economy, but a big part is almost certainly the rise of the eBook reader and the Internet.

Which is somewhat ironic, really – I remember listening to many, many small press operators complain how hard it was to get their stuff onto B&N’s shelves, and about the arbitrary power wielded by B&N’s buyers. In other words, everyone was trying to build a better delivery system for ice, while the real power lay with the guys starting to build the first refrigerators.

People like to arguing about the “death of publishing”, and whether it is imminent, or not. I don’t think publishing is going to die – but it is going to transmogrify.

-JM