As someone immensely interested (and involved) in the digital landscape, my foray into a very old medium comes at a very interesting time. It would seem to me that in the digital age, and more importantly in the social age, that my forthcoming novel should not need to have a publisher at all. I should be able to define the business model, publicize like crazy using social tools, and hope to gain enough traction without ever having to use a business model that is forced upon most authors. Saying that, I know the difficult of working independently and not having funding.
But it seems like I could certainly try. If I start with a finished novel (a very difficult first step), then promote it online using social tools, I could drive traffic to a site where I offer the first few chapters (or even 50% of it) for free, as well as some opportunities to get the whole thing for free and the capability to buy a complete digital edition. I would also distribute it through the emerging channels for devices such as the Kindle. Depending on the success (and or failure) of these paths, I would then have it published in an actual tangible format, perhaps using some on-demand printing to not have to pay for unsold books… seems feasible, right?