An interesting shift is happening in the world of book publishing. When it was first announced, many expected Apple’s iPad to quickly trump the Amazon Kindle and other dedicated reading devices, helping to change the eReader landscape as we know it. According to author Joe Konrath, the iPad is succeeding at changing the publishing industry, but perhaps not in the ways that we expected.

Konrath, a full-time thriller writer, recently posted a blog that illuminated the unforeseen shifts the iPad is causing. He has observed publishers changing their approach in the last few months, opting to produce enriched eBooks as a way to replace the dwindling amount of money in the premium category they have traditionally been able to take in selling hardcover books at traditional book retailers. These enriched eBooks make use of fancy animations and even video, which makes them impossible or impractical to release on the Kindle or Nook.

The only platform that meets the needs of this new multimedia approach to book publishing then is the iPad, which as we all know handles multimedia quite well. But while the prospects for a more entertaining product are there, the market is not. According to Konrath’s observations, authors like him are able to sell as many as 200 eBooks a day on the Kindle bookstore. So far on the iPad, he’s been happy to sell just 100 a month.

Konrath summed up his objects about publishers as such: “They price their ebooks too high, give authors too small a royalty, and are adding movies that can only be played on devices that people aren’t using to read on, like the iPad.”

Left to their own devices, publishers will simply starve themselves out of the market, he suggests.

That doesn’t mean we should start mourning the end of the book. Authors like Seth Godin are starting to realize the advantages to simply self-publishing in an eBook format. Dead tree publishers are simply standing in the way. If an author circumvents the normal publishing channels, he gets to release it on his terms, with the title and cover he wants, and most importantly, keeps a majority of the revenue. It’s a no-brainer, really.