This article - The End of Authorship - captured my attention, as I'm currently working on publishing a book on the changing nature of knoweldge and learning (sometime late August). I opted to bypass traditional publishers - partly because they had already rejected me for a previous project :), but mostly because the lifecycle of publishing (18+ months) a book seemed significantly at odds with what I was trying to say with the book. From the department of who cares, will make the book available for free download (in addition to traditional book format). For some reason, a book generates credibility. Is it the physical substance? The perceived authority (i.e. if I decide to write a book, it shows that I've actually thought through what I say)? I've been an active blogger for five+ years...and during that time I've written the equivalent of many books (in terms of strictly text, ideas, thoughts - the cohesion of a book is obviously lacking, as my writing is a reaction to resources I encounter on a daily basis). I spend more of my time each day reading "rapid text" by bloggers and other online writers than I do reading "book text". Maybe it's just me...
Anyway, quote from the above linked article: "The printed, bound and paid-for book was — still is, for the moment — more exacting, more demanding, of its producer and consumer both. It is the site of an encounter, in silence, of two minds, one following in the other's steps but invited to imagine, to argue, to concur on a level of reflection beyond that of personal encounter, with all its merely social conventions, its merciful padding of blather and mutual forgiveness. Book readers and writers are approaching the condition of holdouts, surly hermits who refuse to come out and play in the electronic sunshine of the post-Gutenberg village."