The Band Plays On

It feels strange to be writing about the future of the publishing industry right now.  With all the drama going on in the industry right now, it’s hard to say which way things will go.  Nevertheless there are a few thoughts, rather hopes, which I have for the future of book publishing.  First, I do think the days of corporate consolidation are, while not necessarily ending, definitely in for a change.  The slow reaction speed and resistance to the digitization of the medium being put up by the big publishers is a recipe for disaster.  There seems to be a misconception that you can stall the process by which technology assimilates a medium, but the internet is like the Borg, and resistance is futile.  Once the idea catches on in the technophile niche, it is only a matter of time before the technology released makes it irresistible.  As a result I believe that those medium publishers who do a better job of adapting to the new market will have a definite advantage over the large publishers that are lagging behind.  Furthermore, the population of people born during the information age is increasing, leading to more and more people who are familiar with the winds of technological progress and are hunting for the newest innovations.  This generation not only consumes new technology, they demand it.  As a result the demand for new forms of consuming books is self creating.   As this trend continues, it will be necessary for the publishing industry to rapidly adapt.  The upside of this is that smaller publishers who are lighter on their feet may find themselves in greater positions of power, making the slow moving conglomerated publishers lose their domination of the market.

The other thing that excites me about the future of publishing is the very real possibility of an opening of the ability to publish to a wider public.  E-book publishing is something that can be accessible to anyone with a computer and the knowledge of how to do it.  While this may lead to an influx of unworthy material being published, it also means that the idea of the “great unpublished author” may never again be seen.  Publishers in this environment can capitalize by changing their function from the gatekeepers of what can and cannot be read to becoming the filters of worthy material.  By marketing the brand of a publishing house well, a publisher can put themselves in a position of trusted professional advisor to the public.  The public will see more and more tripe available in the market, but by connecting with their favorite publisher, who they know looks at the material they like to read with a professional and critical eye, the customer can be directed to the titles he or she wants to read.  This is even further enhanced with the idea of “smart-agents,” internet software that searches through the internet based upon parameters set by the user and provides him/her with a filtered list of results on a daily basis without the user having to do any searching themselves.  Publishers can be on the forefront of this software by providing a smart agent that simply allows customers to set the genre and author parameters of their search and will constantly show that user titles selected and endorsed by that publisher for their buying pleasure.

While my ideas may be a little out there, I feel like technology is opening up a whole new world of opportunities, and that a savvy publisher and businessman/woman could really take advantage of these opportunities to create a new way of reading and enjoying stories.