Earlier this summer, as booksellers and publishers left the annual BookExpo America conference in New York City, it was clear that the book industry is on edge and worried about the future of the business. Many are proclaiming printed books will vanish as relics of an old era, collected only by dedicated enthusiasts. With the demise of the printed book, profits will evaporate. Cheaper digital versions will threaten to erode author royalties, collapsing a system where a bestselling author subsidizes the new, up-and-coming writer. Comparisons to the music industry make their way into every discussion as fears mount that physical books will go the way of the CD. All of this gloom and doom only adds to other dismal facts for the industry—the steady decline of reading in America, massive cuts in public libraries, and the recession's shuttering of hundreds of bookstores.

 

I reject the detractors and doomsayers. I think this is the most exciting time to be involved in the book business. Not only are books receiving more media attention, the new technologies offer an unprecedented opportunity to engage readers. Audio and video enhancements offer authors the ability to reach a reader like never before. Social networks allow readers the chance to discover books they would never have found. Touch screens let children interact with books or play games related to the story. Educators find that reading assignments come alive as all learning modalities can be engaged. Three-dimensional graphics and spoken text transform plain words into dynamic new worlds. The book itself is being reinvented. The future is here.

 

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