A different kind of prediction for 2013 - Lots & lots of publishing options

I was talking to some authors last night and mentioned how unbelievable it is to me just how few tech tools there are out there that are directly geared towards authors.

Even more puzzling is the fact that there are a lot of tools that can provide a solution to a problem that is very common. How to convert X format to Y and get it out there.

There is a lot talk about what will be the New Big Successful Way (tm) to promote work in 2013, but I haven't seen much on how to create it.

And I've got to say... this field is drumming up a lot of interest in the tech world.

Expect a lot of solutions in 2013.

I'd think twice before committing to any given platform long term.

For instance, and I searched, I haven't seen a mention of this site :

http://leanpub.com/ (no affiliation -- just came across my path this morning on the tech blogs)

I might be missing something big but it looks like Smashwords will see a lot of competition in 2013.

It's like tech people are now finding out that authors have technical challenges that can be helped by tools that exist today in the open source world with a slight twist and approach.

It will be interesting to see if the publishing distribution / outreach opportunities of Smashwords will be enough to keep them at the top of their hill. *

* top of the hill assessment by a dumb tech guy. not by anyone that does any authoring or publishing. large grain of salt should be shaken vigorously when reading.