There's no doubt that we are witnessing the dawn of a new age of publishing. But whose dawn is it? Some people are claiming it's the rise of the self-publishers. There was a buzz at the recent Frankfurt Book Fair about self-published superstars like Michael J Sullivan and Amanda Hocking. Technology can launch some amazing transformations. There's a lot of talk these days about how individual authors have been empowered by epublication. No longer are they dependent on publishers for production, distribution and marketing. Writers can just go ahead and do it all themselves. Technology has freed them to publish what, how, and when they like—the world is their audience.

Right?

Maybe.

All of this may be true of the odd author, but I'm not sure if it's going to work out across the board. Authors need copy editors and proof readers. They need artists and designers. Most need help from marketing professionals. I'm not sure if too many authors are realistically able to replace what the multi-national publishers have done in the past.

We've all heard the stories of self-publishers who have made a lot of money out of epublications, but we have no sense of how exceptional or commonplace this experience will become in the future. Individuals have had extraordinary success in all sorts of areas. It's not easy to tell whether they the exception to the rule, or the sign of a significant trend.

My view is that it is far more likely we are witnessing the rise of the small press publishers rather than the self-publishers. With the advantages of epublication, small, passionate teams of people, with the love of specific genres, are in the position to achieve large scale success. They provide the expertise, the filter, that self-publishing doesn't provide. They can bring together people with editing, designing and marketing skills. I think the real transformation that is happening is that small press publishers will be able to compete more successfully with the big boys, punching well above their weight.

So, have a look in this issue of Aurealis to see how we're doing.

We open with an absolute ripper of a hard science fiction story by Greg Mellor—one with both hardness and heart. The second story is a zombie tale with a difference by Andrew J McKiernan.

All the best from the cloud.