Will 21st century authors produce any classics? As the number of books of fiction produced each year approaches staggering numbers, classics bookshelves must find themselves frustrated in their search for the needle in the proverbial haystack.

The printed book will survive as long as the generation that grew up with the printed book remains an economic factor in its survival. When that generation passes into history, the digital bookshelf will be the dominant technology for the reading public.

For Amazon, the system began with good intentions as a marketing device for books, but unintended consequences have made it both an unreliable and suspect platform. Worse, it has tempted the unscrupulous.