Publishing Industry Changes

This is a bit off-topic, but as someone who has been around the fringes of book publishing for years, I find it fascinating.

O’Reilly is about to offer their books on a single-chapter basis, in addition to the traditional mode of whole-book sales. They’ve taken their cue from the music business, where consumers are often interested in only one or two songs off an album.

Will be interesting to see what this does to the industry. For example, does availability of a single chapter increase or decrease demand for the entire book? Can one chapter now become a best-seller? Will this motivate authors to write better books, since any single chapter must stand on its own — no more hiding filler material behind a few really solid chapters.