C-Span is interesting to Dweebs like me.

It's interesting to watch C-Span panels on the publishing industry.  (Yes, C-Span can be interesting if you're a dweeb like me.)

You have the brash techno types who think traditional publishing is doomed.  "You've got 5 years, maybe."

You have the old line publishers who think they're just fine, and books and bookstores are making a comeback.  (They don't sound very confident about it, though.)  "New bookstores are opening up!  Books are selling!  Really!"

You have the flaky pseudo tech people who have some strange notions of hybrids that will take off.  ("Kids want interactive elements in their books"?  No they want them in their games, dude.)

Really no one knows and they all seem scared and uncertain.

So here I am at the perfect nexus.  I own a bookstore and I'm a writer who sells mostly on Amazon's tech platform. 

I haven't a clue.  I do think books are going to last, but here's the thing. Books have never sold all that well, as far as I can tell.  Thousands of people downtown and few are looking for a book, even the vast majority of people who come in the door of my store. So it's a matter of degree.

And the digital is not the answer for the vast majority of writers, who will never be discovered no matter how good they are.

So, just saying, there aren't any answers here.  It's possible that nothing will really work, but books will still get written anyway.

Oh, boy.