Actually, I do deal with publishers quite a bit, as well as music labels and broadcasters. It is not that they are not dedicated to their work. Unfortunately, the economics of the Web works against these cost structures. It might not happen to books yet but with new reading devices and new marketplaces coming up, I think changes will come.
As to my comment on new genres of books being created, this argument is not unique. Every new medium will create a new form of media that suits its characteristics. Online video created 1 minute clips. Mobile created mobile books (in Japan currently).
Yeah, I fully agreed with your view. That is why I am building a service that allows authors to easily create an iPhone application simply by uploading their book. The idea is to use the iPhone application as a base from which the authors can build their community or fans upon.
Thanks for clarifying my point. That was exactly what I meant.
Having experiences in mobile services, payment was not a problem. It is something users don't even think about. However, on the Web, the act of paying is too obvious and requires too much effort.
Sorry if what I did is something against the community rules.
I thought that Hacker News has a pretty solid filtering system so that only interesting articles get floated to the top. If my article was irrelevant, it will stay unnoticed and not affect the front page.
My intention was not to spam but to invite relevant discussions. I did nothing more than submit my article and let the community decide its relevance.
Here is the post from the perspective of the VC that invested in Covestor. It highlights the opportunities in disrupting the asset management industry.
After rereading it, I realised you are right. Lots of errors as well as lacking flow in some of the sentences. Thanks for reading it still. Will definitely improve my writing in the future.