Publishers and editors worldwide have been adjusting to developments in e-publishing, cutbacks in library acquisitions, the spread of e-readers, the growth of online booksellers, and the decline of independent bookstores.

Now, publishers face new challenges from Amazon, which has begun to publish some books itself, cutting out authors’ need to work with publishers. This development has the potential to reshape the publishing landscape, initially in fiction publishing. Eventually, this new strategy could affect non-fiction publishing, too.

This trend is not entirely new, since Barnes and Noble has long published its own books, especially in fields that allow books to be produced cheaply, such as editions of literary classics and reprints of out-of-copyright non-fiction books.

The New York Times reports on an author’s experience with Amazon’s publishing initiative.