In his August 31st GigaOM article, “Amazon Continues on its Mission to Disintermediate Publishers,” award-winning journalist, Mathew Ingram, writes about the many steps Amazon has taken recently to cut publishers out of the market and to build relationships directly with authors. Nathan Bransford picked up on Ingram's piece last week, describing Amazon as the force that is “disrupting the traditional publisher's place in the reading ecosystem.” Has one goliath book distributor and now book publisher changed the literary landscape forever?

Perhaps.

But Inkubate's diverse inventory of new and established writers' works offers insulation against the onslaught of Amazon. How? Inkubate transforms the proverbial paper “slush pile” into a valuable, searchable literary resource and provides traditional publishers with inventory and content management for their eBook revenue models.

Over the past year, Inkubate has had sit downs with the executive teams of two major and well-known publishing titans. They believe that re-engaging writers in a proactive manuscript submission process will attract talented writers who have longed for a traditional career path, but because of industry-imposed roadblocks, have pursued alternate, less resistant publication models. Even award-winning authors like Dianna Hutts Aston have created writer profiles and posted manuscripts to Inkubate. Twelve-time published Aston sees Inkubate as the "logical choice" for her unpublished works.

In 2010, the trade industry generated approximately $30 billion in revenue by publishing approximately 250,000 new trade book titles, 750,000 new eBook titles and an ever-changing catalogue of books still in print. Compare this to 2007, when approximately 250,000 trade books were published and the number of eBooks published was insignificant. The rapid evolution of online technology is redefining what it means to be a writer, publisher, agent and retailer of books.

The migration of authors to self publishing models and the rapid expansion and proliferation of eBooks and eReaders means that traditional publishers who modernize now will reap the rewards that will come from a level playing field, one where writers know that after many decades in the dark, they now have a shot at being seen by mainstream publishers.

Whether traditional publishers are looking for content to drive their trade or educational divisions or to fill the growing demand for quality eBooks, they'll have to do so in a way that preserves their price point. Being the first to discover the best new writing by up and coming authors is one sure way to build brand value. And, Inkubate's content is the engine that can drive that process. At its core, Inkubate is a powerful relational database and search engine that enables publishers to search, browse and “Discover” exactly what they are looking for, easily and efficiently.

Disclosure: I am one of the four founding Partners at Inkubate and I'm fortunate to work alongside printer, publisher and former business colleague, Jay Gale, and the COO and CEO of Portsmouth, NH-based PixelMEDIA, Thomas Obrey and Erik Dodier.  

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