HarperCollins today announced that it was embarking on a program to take control of its potential digitized assets. HarperCollins is going to digitize its backlist and and its new offerings to be in control of its "digital destiny."

This is a smart move. Publishers have been too docile in allowing Amazon, Google and other entities to take control of their digital assets.

This reminds me of the early days of the Internet when it was thought by many organizations that it would be too difficult and too costly to consider running their own Web sites. Owning servers was considered exotic. This is hard to believe, but in 1994 this was the standard operating concept about how to be involved with the Internet.

Today we have a similar situation with digital assets. Publishers are too ready to sit and watch. This is also reminds me of what book publishers did with audio books 25 years ago. Audio book publishing was considered exotic and not important back then. It was common to see a best seller sold off for a few hundred dollars and a future royalty. It took a while, but then book publishers got wise to the big money in audio book publishing and soon best sellers brought in very large advances.

The digital age is here and now. Get some backbone and start your own digital library pronto. Publishers can still work with Amazon and Google and others, but they can also sell digitally themselves.