Tra­di­tional pub­lish­ers bun­dled together a vari­ety of impor­tant ser­vices to con­nect authors with read­ers, from edit­ing and pub­lic­ity to dis­tri­b­u­tion and intel­lec­tual prop­erty man­age­ment. Cheap and easy dig­i­tal tools threaten to auto­mate many of these tasks, but are we los­ing some­thing vital? What roles should pub­lish­ers play this new land­scape and what will the full ecosys­tem of edi­tors, agents, pub­li­cists and other play­ers look like?