It seems that with literally each passing day these days, the news of the decline of corporate publishing mirrors more and more the decline of corporate music: just as music and bands continue to flourish even as the big music publishers continue to complain about the Internet, reading and books and authors continue to flourish even as corporate book publishers appear to be orchestrating their own downfall by misunderstanding the sea changes the Net, print-on-demand, and e-books are bringing.

A piece at The Big Money by Marion Maneker, though, gets it:

The Kindle Revolution

Digital readers will save writers and publishing, even if they destroy the book business.

The Kindle may be little more than a novelty device today. With each passing day, though, it begins to have the potential to change the business model for writers of all types and stripes.

That’s how it begins. And it’s chock full of more revolutionary goodness:

Forget all the myths about the book business: the parties, the poring over manuscripts, and passionate arguments. The book business is a distribution business, pure and simple. It’s about getting the words and ideas of a writer into the hands of a reader.

…

Theoretically, the Kindle will give writers greater access to the public. Some of contemporary publishing’s biggest success stories are self-propelled sensations. The Secret and the Twilight series were self-published works that became independent industries. A publishing house played no role in their initial success.

This is only the beginning…