Eoin Purcell
Start your engines
If business models in publishing are to change and if people are to adopt digital over paper books as their main reading method (whether that be in ebook, online access or whatever), publishers are going to have ro embrace the online world in a real way. To date, although some publishers have started to do this, few major movers in the Trade Publishing world have shifted in any earth shattering way.
Which is why the new, digital only, house Quartet Press is an interesting launch. For one thing the three members of the quartet that we know of are not easily dismissed. They are serious people with a record of expressing informed opinion on the trade, not to mention actually engaging on one level or another with the trade and making things happen.
The stature that Quartet will have because of the prominent status of its founders suggests that the digital publishing space is about to become much more interesting. Quartet may be the trailblazer but there is a every reason to expect that most trade publishers will follow suit and launch digital only imprints (or indeed change the basis of their publishing to digital first), maybe not in a rush but eventually as they translate their publishing from a predominantly paper based business to one that revolves around the types of verticals that Mike Shatzkin discusses in this post and many others and communities like Tor.com.
In any case, we watch this space with interest!
Eoin
Eoin Purcell's Blog 
Have to agree. These are some folks with not only some real industry smarts, but media smarts as well. Going to be very interesting and fun to watch this group get up and going. I’m excited to see what they do.
Excited and nervous for them!
Eoin
Wow, Eoin. Thank you so much. Your words mean so much to all of us at Quartet. We’re doing everything we can to make sure we live up to such high expectations. And, we hope that you (and everyone else in the community) will share ideas, criticisms, suggestions and thoughts — on anything we’re doing and on anything related to the evolution of publishing. First and foremost, we want voices to be heard and community to flourish, so stories can be told. We definitely don’t have all the answers, but we know that with all interested parties working together, we’re much more likely to come up with some workable solutions.
Thanks again for the post. And, I suppose the Quartet crew has some serious work to do now. So, we’d better get to it!
Thanks for the comment Kat!
I am very impressed with the step you guys have taken and I think if it can be done, it will be done by you!
Looking forward to seeing the results!
Eoin
Eoin —
Thank you so much for writing this. It’s a weird thing, putting words to action, but if ever a time to do so existed, it is right now. We are, individually and collectively, extremely excited.
In a funny way, we appreciate all the eyes on us. No one person — or company — has all the answers, and it helps that our friends are out there, cheering, jeering (there will be moments!), and offering advice. I’m sure we’ll need a lot of the latter!
kassia,
Thanks for the comment!
Scrutiny is certainly a motivator! I’m certainly in the cheering camp and, for what it’s worth, happy to help too!
All the best,
Eoin