It frightens me a little to picture the book publishing industry ten years from now, mostly because I’m really not sure what I should expect. There are many products that exist today that I wouldn’t even be able to fathom ten years ago. If someone had told be there would be some kind of electronic device fighting for sales with paper books, it would have seemed crazy. This is a little scary…what will we have ten years from now that I think is completely ridiculous in the present time?

I definitely think that consolidation will continue, probably at an accelerated rate. I remember the day one of my favorite bookstores back home, which had been opened and run by the same family for nearly twenty years, were forced to shut their doors. When I worked for Barnes and Noble, we closed several stores and had a temporary hiring freeze. The little indies are not the only ones hurting as outlets such as Amazon.com rake in all the business.

I’m not sure how the low entry costs of POD will affect small publishers. Even if it is cheap to print something, it doesn’t mean there is a demand for it or that anyone wants to buy it. I’d like to think POD, ebooks, and other cheaper and newer technologies will eventually help small presses, but I can’t really say that I think it is going to happen.

I’m really not sure what the future of publishing holds. I keep thinking of the day during my undergrad career when my university canceled all the print photography dark room and lab classes and went entirely digital. It was a sad day. I don’t think this is within ten years for the publishing industry, but I feel like it is looming. I hope it happens far enough down the line where I don’t have to witness it.