Mike, I'm not sure the word "platform" is as strong an idea today (though I know it's been around publishing for decades) as is Seth Godin's "tribe." Godin demonstrates that a large tribe can make some huge things happen, including move a book.

It seems to me the better questions to be asking are: How large is the author's tribe? How loyal or even rabid are they? Can they be motivated to scoop up whatever he/she is selling? How do you motivate this tribe?

And perhaps the most important question for today's marketers and publicists: What can we do to enlarge and energize the author's tribe? If we can help the author expand his or her tribe, book sales will follow.

It's probably worth noting the huge difference between an author who makes his or her living by writing and an "author" who has a day job doing something else--for whom a book is an extension of their larger field of concentration. They build tribes in very different ways.

Mike, thanks for the review. Glad to see the new innovations, and am especially excited to see Kindle working on the audio components. Personally, I won't be forking over my hard-earned commissions until the publishers start providing the book in both digital, print and audio forms for one wraparound price.

For the masses, however, no format or technology can increase book sales. The problem is readership in ANY format. As long as we aren't creating and developing new people who can and want to read, publishing's market will continue to shrink. And expensive gadgets won't bridge the gap.