As if we needed more evidence this week that the old model is under severe pressure from new and competing models, it crops up from an unexpected source:
She sold more than 100million books and was for years the most-borrowed author in British libraries.
Now, more than 12 years after her death, Catherine Cookson, the best-selling author of The Fifteen Streets and the Mallen trilogy, is embroiled in a literary bust-up.
Her estate, the Catherine Cookson Charitable Trust, is set to infuriate the print publishing industry by releasing 100 of her novels as cut-price electronic books.