# The Future of the Book



## Plasticweld (Oct 19, 2014)

I well written essay on the future of the book in this past weeks Economist Magazine.  
Something tells me that most here, do not read or subscribe to the magazine.  There is whole section devoted to an essay on the future of book selling and publishing. 


Here is a online link to the article, I am sure many of you may get as much information out of it as I did...Bob

http://www.economist.com/news/essays/21623373-which-something-old-and-powerful-encountered-vault


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## Blade (Oct 19, 2014)

Thanks for posting. It is always great to see something from the Economist which, IMHO, is one of the very elite publications in the English speaking world. I don't think that WF posters are much into magazines generally as I rarely hear them mentioned. This would be one jewel they would be missing.
l will have a content comment coming along later. Catchy title by the way, Marshal McLuhan once used it for an essay.


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## Greimour (Oct 19, 2014)

A lot of that had some interesting figures. 

Thanks for the read.


~Kev.


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## shadowwalker (Oct 19, 2014)

I was okay with it until they started quoting Barry Eisler. Too bad they couldn't find someone less tarnished to discuss self-publishing (loved the "legacy publishing" thing :sour. At that point I started reconsidering the voracity of the whole thing.


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## spartan928 (Oct 20, 2014)

I do believe that the evolution of present day media includes publishing. Let me explain. The world is experiencing a great shift toward very personal, bite-sized entertainment which Youtube, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and the like have single-handedly given birth to, with the mother of it all being the Internet. I've experienced our culture when the Internet did not exist all the way to the present and the shift in how all generations are contributing and consuming entertainment is incredible. People are spending more time on funny and interesting things that are immediate and shared instantaneously via social media and also TV. I don't think it's a fad that the public are becoming less and less interested in traditional forms of entertainment that are written and produced with the same tired tropes and laugh tracks. The public is clamoring for entertainment that is real, immediate and they can contribute to.

So how does this impact publishing? In much the same way as TV, movies and games have been affected by the interconnectedness of the Internet. People are finding success and gratification in being able to put their creative endeavors out there to a wider audience with no help from a corporate behemoth that ignores and derides them. I think where we are at today, is the world of traditional publishing hasn't quite grasped this shift in public consciouness to take advantage of it. They're trying, and publishing will continually evolve over the next twenty years to adjust. It's a slow process because there are mindsets on both sides that have entrenched points of view and experience. 

I believe you will see more and more traditional publishers working with a business model that embraces writers who want that chance to get their work out there and see what happens without having to be vetted by a corporate sales department. That is, they want the court of public opinion to judge for themselves and there will be publishers who find a way to make it profitable to partner with these authors and see where the work takes them. Again, it has to be done in a profitable manner. The world of publishing is not going to be forever "trad" and "self" and you will gradually see a blurring of these two dimensions of publishing. Certainly, those models are always going to exist, but the there are companies, existing or yet to be conceived, that are going to be quite successful and wealthy that can be innovative enough to capitalize on the ever-changing nature of mass entertainment, which includes fictional stories in written form.


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## Hailey_Murray (Oct 20, 2014)

I'm the Senior Publisher at an indie publishing house that currently only publishes in ebook format. Put simply, we haven't found a book yet that justifies the extra expense for publication in print, plus we've been able to publish shorter books very successfully as ebooks that simply weren't long enough to publish conventionally.

I still personally love a real, physical book, but I do most of my reading on my iPad. I think as attention spans get shorter and shorter, shorter ebooks will begin to dominate the market. It's a shame because so many are terrible (it's the largest potential risk we see for our business: that online booksellers will eventually only deal with major publishers because there is so much absolute dreck being self-published) but right now, our company is doing very well publishing ebooks only.


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## InstituteMan (Oct 20, 2014)

Interesting essay. There's a lot to digest there. I really appreciate the historical perspective offered. 

The Economist is always well worth the read. I shouldn't be surprised that Bob has a subscription too, I guess. :fat:


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## Morkonan (Oct 21, 2014)

A great article. I don't subscribe, but I pick it up, every once-in-awhile, when I'm in a real bookstore... They still have those.


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## shadowwalker (Oct 21, 2014)

spartan928 said:


> So how does this impact publishing? In much the same way as TV, movies and games have been affected by the interconnectedness of the Internet. People are finding success and gratification in being able to put their creative endeavors out there to a wider audience with no help from a corporate behemoth that ignores and derides them. I think where we are at today, is the world of traditional publishing hasn't quite grasped this shift in public consciouness to take advantage of it. They're trying, and publishing will continually evolve over the next twenty years to adjust. It's a slow process because there are mindsets on both sides that have entrenched points of view and experience.
> 
> I believe you will see more and more traditional publishers working with a business model that embraces writers who want that chance to get their work out there and see what happens without having to be vetted by a corporate sales department. That is, they want the court of public opinion to judge for themselves and there will be publishers who find a way to make it profitable to partner with these authors and see where the work takes them. Again, it has to be done in a profitable manner. The world of publishing is not going to be forever "trad" and "self" and you will gradually see a blurring of these two dimensions of publishing. Certainly, those models are always going to exist, but the there are companies, existing or yet to be conceived, that are going to be quite successful and wealthy that can be innovative enough to capitalize on the ever-changing nature of mass entertainment, which includes fictional stories in written form.



Very few successful publishers ignore or deride _good _writers. There are many reasons why good writers don't get published at a particular time or by a particular publisher, but that constitutes neither ignoring nor derision. And trade publishers have already embraced different models of publishing, with various imprints that deal with the more 'outside the box' types of authors. Trade publishers aren't nearly as reluctant to be innovative as some would have us believe.


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## spartan928 (Oct 21, 2014)

I agree Shadow, I didn't word that very well. The being ignored comment was intended to describe the perspective of the writer, not the publisher. Naturally, publishers are a business and profit from quality writing. But, I do think the thousands of writers who get nowhere with traditional publishing often get jaded. Yet, suggesting that the publishers' motive is to ignore or deride is incorrect. That may be how rejections are perceived and self-publishing is an avenue of response, which has interestingly realized some very succesful authors.


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