I don't think publishers should get into the software business. They're in the content business and need to stay focused on that. They have what e-readers need: the content that makes the device relevant.

In my opinion, publishers will be much better served by letting the hardware and software experts develop products at their own cost. Failure of a device costs the publisher nothing, and they'll still have the content for whatever device does achieve market penetration.

James Brindle has failed to note the fundamental and enormous difference between typography for the web/screen environment and typopgraphy for print. They're just not the same. Blindly applying principles that work for print to an e-reader would be a horrendous mistake.

@Carolyn -- Good point re: the essential differences between print and electronic design. I ran into similar issues during the early days of newspaper/magazine transition to the Web. Designers from a print pedigree tried to slam print structures into the Web environment, and the results were often useless to the end user (i.e. formalizing fonts by turning an entire page of text into a single GIF).

At least they should participate in discussions about e-readers (software and maybe hardware) specs.
Significantly, few continental publishers seem to be active in the .epub standard discussions.

I subscribe to most of Bill Hill's conclusions about the need of coordination between designers and developers:

Instead of trying to hold on to the past, the design community and software developers should be working together to develop this technology [i.e. reading functions for the Web] and make it mainstream for the Web.

I think the view that "techies put technology first" is a very Windows centric take on things and doesn't take into account that Mac developers view form as being the defining characteristic of their application. Take, for example, font selection in an e-reader. In the Windows world choosing the correct font is seen as a tough choice so it's made a preference. A Mac developer would see this as central to the book and make the "best" choice, just like what is done with traditional books.

I don't think you need publishers to get into the software domain, you just need the right developer to develop the right software. And the right developer realizes that they don't know everything and need to work with people in the industry to make the best book possible.

In the best scenario the application should fade into the background so that the reader is simply enjoying their book. Content is king but you need the right system in place to get that content to the reader, without the reader having to think about it.

This is all taking a very narrow view of what 'content' it is that publishers are and should be publishing and how that translates to digital. Granted, publishers are in the realm of the printed narrative for starters, but the future of story-telling is very much being redefined by how people consume, react and respond to those stories.

Content and software in this frame of mind are not mutually exclusive, and if anything the end-user experience should be approached on both fronts simultaneously. The lines are fundamentally blurred and more-and-more inherently media neutral.

Especially in the case of new authors trying to build a brand either in their name or via content using a plethora of free web content, blogs, new media with the mindset to establish themselves or their work enough to get it published traditionally or digitally thereafter.

If you look at Amazon and in this case they are a bookseller and software developer. So far they are the closest example of a bridging of the two spaces with their release of the Kindle. And take for example Scholastic's multi-platform project that will combine multiple authors, properties and media to explore web, gaming and the printed word simultaneously.

Should they wait around for someone to think of that for them? Hardly.

Publishers should stick to publishing. Keep the source in re-purposable XML and you'll be fine
for whatever fashion hits the streets this year.

Hold out for your prissy 'like in print' look and you'll miss the boat