Feedback on the Internet Publishing Manifesto has been good so far. One question I’ve been asked a couple of times concerns the differences between “internet publishing” and what the traditional publishers are already doing.

First, let me reiterate that I’m focusing entirely on technical publishing. The literary world outside of technical publishing is a totally different ballgame and while many of the same issues still apply, I don’t purport that they are exactly the same.

When I refer to “traditional publishers” or “print publishers”, I’m talking about publishers of technical books. This includes the likes of O’Reilly, Addison-Wesley, Apress, and the dozens of other labels you see when you walk into the computer section of your local bookstore. Their primary business is selling printed books. They may be doing some stuff online (even in a big way), but their primary business is still books.

When I refer to “internet publishers”, I’m talking about publishers whose primary business is developing and selling technical content online. Most of the existing technical content websites act as online magazines. They commission and develop individual articles, perhaps with some blogs mixed in to appear technically relevant. A good example is the O’Reilly Network or CMP’s TechWeb Pipelines. Neither of these sites charge for their content (they are ad-supported), but sites that are based on print magazines, such as Windows IT Pro, do charge.

Another type of internet publisher aims to replace the content you find in books with online content. This is what I have in mind for NetAware Media. In this space, the competition is less well-defined, but includes Safari Online (the leader) along with Realtime Publishers and sites like MSDN. I think this area will grow a lot over the next five to ten years. In fact, there are probably a half dozen small companies out there forming right now to tackle this space (much like me). Ultimately, it will come down to whether a small upstart internet publisher can get enough traction before the big boys wake up from their internet slumber. As I’ll write later, I doubt many of them will and the carnage along the way will be significant.