some random and possibly ill-informed thoughts on publishing

The publishing world is changing in the new digital age, but not necessarily changing as fast as it should. As an author, I am wondering how to capitalize on the ebook trend, and perhaps on the cellphone app world in general. I know that real bookstores have been the mainstay of publishing for a long while, and I love bookstores. I really, really do. But it's interesting to look back on the history of B&N/Borders eating up smaller bookstores, and now struggling financially and (Borders) closing. So what will fill the void?

Some questions about ebooks?

1. If best-selling authors like JK Rowling and others start selling ebooks online on their own, will this make paper books obsolete more quickly?

2. If paper books become the minority, at what point do best selling authors need publishers anymore? (Will the same kinds of promotion matter? Will they hire their own editors/designers?)

3. If best selling authors sell on their own because they have already established a name, what will publishers who are being pushed hard only to publish best-sellers do?

At some point I think I would like to try an experimental novel that I write "by the seat of my pants" and sell as an ebook installment on a weekly basis, a la Stephen King's The Green Mile but for a new age. I'd do it with the promise that I don't know the ending and haven't outlined it, but am going to find out what happens along with my readers. (Not that big a stretch, since that is how I write anyway--minus the editing stage). I think this would be both insane and the sort of insanity that I thrive on in terms of stress.

What do you think about the new world of books emerging?

I will say that I tend to read disposable books on my iphone, ie books that I actually do not want to have in my library. I still like having physical books around if I love the author and have a signed copy or if I want to read it over and over again. I don't know if other readers are like me, though. Obviously, there are those who don't have ebook readers. But surely that is just a "yet."