I don’t know the answer, but here are several – contradictory – pieces of evidence.

Darrell Delamaide on the attractions of self-publishing in a world of ultra-cautious conventional publishing. The broad digital highway carries new books to new audiences.

Sam Harris, taking the opposite and pessimistic view that blogging and people’s unwillingness to pay for anything much online are destroying the scope to make a living from writing. And besides, nobody wants to read anything longer than 60 pages anyhow.

The OUP offering its online platform for publishing monographs (Oxford Scholarship Online) available to other academic presses – the first batch includes Fordham University Press (Fordham Scholarship Online/FSO); The American University in Cairo Press (Cairo Scholarship Online/CSO); The University Press of Kentucky (Kentucky Scholarship Online/KSO); University Press of Florida (Florida Scholarship Online/FLASO); Hong Kong University Press (Hong Kong Scholarship Online/HKSO). Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh Scholarship Online/ESO) and Policy Press (Policy Press Scholarship Online/PPSO) are slated for March 2012. And, OUP officials say, additional presses are in talks to participate.

These come after the announcement I noted recently from Yale University Press that it will be publishing physical books derived from free online lectures.

Fascinating (at least for an economist) to watch this business evolution in action.