I have not yet written my Great American Novel, or published anything, actually. Based on what you said about the trending and eventual dominance of ebooks, we will have to wait and see. It this trends to completion, I would be concerned about getting paid for my work.
Popular music is going through an economic shakeup, in that, so many people expect to get MUSIC FOR FREE ONLINE, as they have grown up with. What is a musician to do? Just yesterday, I heard that the 80’s group U2,a group that is still quite popular, released a new album online, and for free. They expect to make their money via tours and fan merchandise online. Many retail outlets like Target are furious, because the bait of a new U2 CD or DVD could have attracted customers into their physical stores. That’s how its been done since printed music books were sold. Some of the biggest acts can do this. Madonna and Prince have both given away albums to select fan groups.
Lots more small acts do as well.
And it does not matter if you put music out in an old fashioned analog Vinyl record either. It will be digitized and uploaded to the net in mere minutes. Same goes for a Dead Tree Media book but it will take just a bit longer.
You will find lots of authors who write good solid fiction and non-fiction can make decent money writing digital books. In fact NOW most independent New Authors write only eBooks and then later make Dead Tree Media Copies either in an On Demand system or short run printings. Or at least this is the info conveyed by the trade paper writers in the industry.
Will everyone who wants to write a book be able to make his/her living at it? Nope it will take talent AND an ability to market the work either independently or through a service/publisher but there is a market for it. But the days of getting paid 20 plus dollars for a book are numbered. Market Economics will see to that.
There will always be piracy. But when the price gets down to a few bucks rather than tens of dollars for a work piracy becomes less of a problem due to the effort it takes to find a book in the right format OR converting it to the right format, then getting it on your device. Such is a bit more complicated then touching a button on the Kindle book shop and waiting for it to download from the cloud. And of course viruses and malware are always a concern when using a torrent site. Such is rare when you are purchasing a legal copy from Amazon or iTunes etc.