The Egatz Epitaph

Just in case the publishing industry needed another Internet-era corporation to take the smoking gun from Apple’s hand, load a few more rounds into it, and fire a couple of more times into the lifeless body of the “The Book of Dead Trees,” Google has stepped up to the plate today.

Unlike Apple and it’s information appliance-slash-induction stovetop iPad, Google happily announced it will be offering book titles not on just one kludgey Android-based model, but a plethora of kludgey Android-based models, otherwise known as a “broad array of devices.”

The service will be called Google Editions. Chris Palma of Google diplomatically avoided any previous problems Google may have started with authors and publishers, but will the industry remember these during e-book negotiations, or will they swallow hard?

The pricing model is yet to be announced while Google representatives no doubt continue to beat New York publishers with old rolled-up DOS manuals in small, sweaty rooms, newspapers hastily taped to the windows. Also in the works is a Google Android tablet e-reader. Even the blind can see now.

Meanwhile, top brass at major publishers continue to seek golden parachutes, vacancies at the Hazelden Clinic, and positions with NGO’s in developing nations. Change isn’t pretty, but we’re running out of trees and oxygen. Somewhere, Darwin continues his long smile.

For the record, this not-without-mirth reporter-as-writer sees the further democratization of publishing not as a bad thing. In fact, it means more readers for most authors. This reporter-as-publisher is in agreement with this not-without-mirth reporter-as-writer.