What do you think about this ? (found in connection with Frankfurt Book fair) MNI
Books given five-year reprieve
The book is safe for the next five years, but longer term the printed word could be supplanted by the electronic book and reduced to the status of a “rich man’s toy”, delegates at the 21st Book Industry Supply Chain meeting, held at the Frankfurt Book Fair, were told.
Mike Shatzkin, from the Idea Logical Company, said: “The one comforting thing about the next five years is that we get to keep our cherished item, the book.” Mr Shatzkin said the e-book revolution was happening but that it would not happen in the next five years. But he warned that the next five years would bring other changes to the infrastructure of publishing which would diminish the value of more than 100-year’s worth of investment.
“Printers and shippers of books are in peril,” Mr Shatzkin said. “Publishers and booksellers must change form,” he added. Mr Shatzkin said that over the next five years print-on-demand would become a routine activity, out-of-print would become a meaningless phrase, the use of print-on-demand would accelerate the growth of the english language, all distribution transactions would be done via the Internet, the editing process would take place on the Internet and “virtually all publisher’s marketing efforts would be moved to the Internet”.
The changes could hit the book trade’s bottom line, Mr Shatzkin suggested. “This transition does not suggest a highly profitable industry over the next few years,” he said. Longer term Mr Shatzkin was less hopeful about the books chances of survival in its present form. He predicted that e-book users would “insinuate” themselves across society. Its growth would be driven by an “institutionalised” use of e-books in schools and businesses. This, he said, over the next 20 years could reduce the printed book to the status of a “rich man’s toy”.
thebookseller.com |
