What's that, authors? You want to be paid, as well?

I had the rather cool pleasure to be a guest panellist on the Litopia After Dark podcast at the weekend, alongside Martin Daniels, who, amongst other things, blogs for The Bookseller. There's not a whole lot he doesn't know, or have an opinion about, in the world of publishing.

If you’re not familiar with the podcast (and if you’re serious about books, you should be), each panellist raises an issue they want to talk (or rant) about. The ebook phenomenon has been a regular feature in recent months, and Friday night’s show was no exception.

We started with a look at the threatened boycott of Amazon's Kindle ebook reader by independent publisher Antellus, who has been riled by the fact that ebook editions published for the Kindle, and subsequently retired and taken off-line, are still being sold, not to mention claims about Amazon's seller agreement, which it says allows Amazon to modify and sell books from its suppliers in whatever format it chooses.

Martyn then weighed in on the issue of royalties from ebooks - and whether authors are being screwed. With advances going down, at all levels but the very top, and with a market where the recommended retail price often has little relevance, where is an author's money coming from - and how will authors be paid for ebook sales?

He suggested that, rather than an across the board contract between publisher and author, a publisher could have separate digital rights for each sales avenue - eg Amazon, Google - and on renewable contracts, allowing for changes. On the face of it, these suggestions sound reasonable.

The whole ebook industry remains an entirely unpredictable business. Its share of the book market is advancing year-on-year, but quite how that growth is going to continue over the next five, ten or twenty years is difficult to predict. The likes of the Kindle are increasing in popularity, yet I've yet to speak to one person who would ever consider going for an ebook over a traditional slab of paper, other than some agents, who like the flexibility of being able to take a couple of hundred manuscripts to the gym with them for a good read on the treadmill.

One thing is sure - as a new publisher, it's an area in which we need to keep our eye on the ball, starting now. I'm woefully ignorant about ebooks and their implications for the publishing industry, and I don't think I'm alone. It's going to mean a tonne of research and trying to understand an area that is complex to say the least. And we'll be considering Martyn's suggestions for when we enter the ebook market.

But it's equally important for authors to keep abreast of developments, to ensure they understand the implications for their profession. If ebooks are here to stay, then it's better to be in from the start than trying to play catch-up when the ebook industry is well and truly cooking.

It won't hang around for you.