"We actually don't have a good gifting tradition yet for e-books," says Sourcebooks' Raccah. Despite all the advances in reading technology, physical books are still the best Christmas presents.
Yes, that is sad. Or even lending (looking at you Amazon!). Nevertheless, e-books have done to publishing what mp3s and online video has done to the record labels / movie studios.
It's basically killed them, yet they are still running around with zombies waiting for that headshot to put them down for good.
E-books are here to stay and publishers, just like record labels, are useless as one can now establish a firm and successful marketing campaign mostly through the web.
Self-publishing may not kill e-books by publishers but has killed not only their monopoly, but also their whole business model.
Welcome to 2013. Accept it or zombify. Or better yet,
die;