The problem with E-books, Michael Miron says, is not that they're too hard to read or not available in widely accessible formats, the usual complaints hurled at digital tomes--it's that people only think of them as substitutes for paperbacks.

"That assumption is flat-out wrong," says the CEO of ContentGuard Inc., which provides publishers with the digital-rights-management (DRM) software they need to sell digital content. "This is about serving content to marketplaces in ways that were not possible before." That could take the form of online subscription services for esoteric professional journals, customized on-demand publishing of out-of-print titles, and a shot at the spotlight for writers who can't land a book contract, which is about 95% of authors. Not to mention carving up chapters of textbooks, analyst reports, and travel guides, or digitizing library archives. And all that material could be read from a Palm Pilot, or a device made specifically for reading E-books, or even from a PC. You could even read it on one device and then print out a copy from a computer at home.

Miron believes publishers should look at E-books as a way to boost sales, and consumers should look at them as a new reading option. "This is about widening choices," he says. "The business model of taking a book that's already published and selling the same thing online, at roughly the same price, is not a good one."

Last week, ContentGuard said IndyPublish, which issues E-books for independent authors as well as for titles that are out of print, will use the company's RightsEdge DRM hardware and software package and access-rights clearing to distribute its content.

Publishers big and small, despite the increased reading choices presented by new E-book titles and digital content, will maintain their control over consumers seeking brand names as a guide, Miron says. "Publishers will end up with their own branch franchises, which will become a seal of approval," for shoppers, he says. Their role "is shifting from one of absolute advantage to relative advantage in a much bigger marketplace."

The digital world may present new opportunities for undiscovered authors, but even if they are lucky enough to find a cyberpublisher, one obstacle still remains: marketing. DigitalOwl Inc. is a startup focused on that problem, and is helping publishers find relevant Web sites to sell their titles. McGraw-Hill Professional, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, said Monday that it would use DigitalOwl's DRM technology and marketing abilities to sell digital copies of its business, computing, and technical reference titles on Web sites such as Career.com, CareerNet.com, and EmployMax.com. DigitalOwl also has agreements with iPublish.com at Time Warner Books and Baker & Taylor, the nation's No. 1 book wholesaler.

"Publishers tend to be slow and stodgy," says DigitalOwl CEO Kirstie Chadwick. "It's a 200-year-old industry, and they went digital just two or three years ago."