http://www.pshares.org/

The circulation of print magazines has declined precipitously in last 24 months. This dissolution of subscriber bases has accelerated dramatically as economic recession set in. But a diminishing wealth effect is only partly to blame. The managements of printed periodicals - from dailies to quarterlies - failed miserably to grasp Internet's potential and potential threat. They were fooled by lack of convenient and cheap e-reading devices into believing that old habits die hard. They do - but magazine reading is not habit forming. Readers' loyalties are fickle and shift according to content and price. The Web offers cornucopial and niche-targeted content - free of charge or very cheaply. This is hard to beat and is getting harder by day as natural selection among dot.bombs spares only quality content providers.

Consider Ploughshares, Literary Journal.

It is a venerable, not for profit, print journal published by Emerson College, now marking its 30th anniversary. It recently inaugurated its web sibling. The project consumed three years and $125,000 (grant from Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds). Every title Ploughshares has ever published was indexed (over 18,000 journal pages digitized). In all, "website will offer free access to over 2,750 poems and short stories from past and current issues."

The more than 2000 (!) authors ever published in Ploughshares will each maintain a personal web page comprising biographical notes, press releases, new books and events announcements and links to other web sites. This is Yahoo! formula. Content generated by authors will thus transform Ploughshares into a leading literary portal.

E-books are read on computer, and greatest thing about them, as I've discovered myself, is that one can enlarge text so it is easier to read. For those who find even that too difficult, it is possible to get software in your computer which will read text to you. I'm not sure how digital it sounds, but I believe in many places that software is free to any who are legally defined as blind.

What shocked me about exchange was that a number of writers had admitted a bias against e-books when this other member first asked who all offered their books in this form. The mindset still seems to be, a book is not really published until it comes out in paperback or hardcover.

I confess I've learned too, that fiction doesn't sell as an ebook yet, though all kinds of marketing manuals and self-help books do.

Fortunately, when this writer explained herself, others rallied around with offers to help out. One said she'd gladly offer her books to be read on tape if anyone could be found to do it. Another urged that we all consider producing our books in digital at same time as in print.

Thinking about all this today, I suddenly see wide open doors of opportunity for ministry and perhaps a business.