I don't know for sure -- I can only hear editors, etc. talk on the subject. A big problem no one is talking about is, books have an extremely narrow profit margin. A lot of people like Time-Warner got into books thinking that there was money in it, only to sell the publishing houses years later. I guess getting the "book up front before the movie rights were auctioned" was not saving them any money.

There is a real risk that unlike music, books cannot adjust to digital, and quality books will become hard to find because publishers will stop publishing all but what they perceive as a bestseller. If they can't justify their profits, they'll fold that part of the business. Which mean the best promoters will sell on line -- not the best books.

There is a real risk that in a couple of years, writers will be "creators" who come up with ideas and get paid for them, while others build games, movies, TV etc. from them. Which really doesn't interest me -- I want to control the original story from beginning to end.