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Coelho thinks publishers don’t get the web

According to Paulo Coelho, publishers don’t understand the role of the Internet in the book industry. At the Frankfurt Book Fair, Coelho chastised publishers for not adapting in the face of the digital content craze. From The Guardian:

“Instead of seeing in this new media an opportunity to invent new ways of promotion, publishers concentrated on creating micro sites, which are totally outdated, and a few of them complained about the ‘misfortunes’ of the other cultural industries, perceiving the web as the ‘enemy’,” he said.

While it may have been a little melodramatic to say that publishers were “as bad as copyist monks bewailing the arrival of printed books back in the 16th century,” the article notes that Coelho’s statements may carry some weight. A survey of 1,000 book professionals found that while more than 70% of those surveyed said they felt ready for the digital challenge, 60% said they don’t use e-books or e-readers at all.