Software used by book publishers to manage contracts, royalties, production workflow, sales, and marketing have begun to migrate from relatively closed systems that are internally maintained, to cloud-based platforms on the Web. Business drivers behind this migration include a highly dynamic market for e-books and other digital products, pressures to cut costs, and a shrinking ROI horizon for technology investments. While questions remain as to how quickly the transition will take, the possibility of cloud-based book publishing promises to change the nature of publishing infrastructure and with it the role of the IT professionals in publishing.