Worth reading!

Dorchester, an excellent but undercapitalized publisher of mass market paperbacks in such popular genres as romance, horror, thrillers and westerns had been struggling for some time as returns hammered it relentlessly and digital books ate further into its margins.  Milliot reports that the editorial team will remain intact but in all likelihood the monthly releases will drop from 30 to 25.

If Dorchester follows its digital decision, monthly releases are not the only thing that’s going to drop. Everything about the company’s operation will shrink if not implode. And yet, oddly, that will not necessarily be a bad thing. In the new paradigm, direct-to-consumer publishing means higher profits because all intermediaries (distributors, bookstores, etc.) are eliminated. E-Reads knows this: we’ve been doing it since 2000.

via The Incredible Shrinking Publisher | Publishing In the 21st Century.