The obvious next step is to first release books in digital unless they will definitely sell in print form. It’s like the blocks are falling by accident into place.

Similar to movie studios betting on well-known franchises to bring box-office gold, publishers want to market more blockbuster authors writing serial books featuring a distinctive leading character to lure repeat readers, as has been seen with the success of late Swedish author Stieg Larsson and crime fiction writers such as Michael Connelly.

via E-books cause publishers to cleave to tried-and-true authorsand series.