I marched through the remainder of The Anatomy of Buzz yesterday. It was worth the eyeball-time, but I doubt I'll ever read it again. In such cases, a cross between Netflix and a less sleazy rent-to-own business model would be perfect: If I like it enough to want a copy permanently, I can buy it; if not, back it goes into the pool for someone else to try.
At present, that idea amounts to wishful thinking on my part. It seems (judging from the blogs of Clay Shirky and Seth Godin) that the publishing industry is resisting the full implications of digital distribution--and doing it about as well as the recording and motion picture industries.
Ultimately, I think that publishers--including self-publishers--will largely bypass the retailers, at best turning them (more obviously) into marketing fronts. But in the meantime, the distribution mechanisms (full-fledged computers, tablets, smartphones and e-readers) are in their Wild West, VHS vs. BetaMax phase. Unfortunately, such profusion of options pretty much guarantees more evolutionary dead-ends than usual.
But in the fallout, perhaps there will be room for the equivalent of secondhand bookstores (minus, alas, the heady perfume of old paper), catering to esoteric formats and out-of-print content. I love secondhand bookstores, so I can't resist that bit of wishful thinking.
