Changes to the Publishing Industry = Disruptive and Non-Negotiable

Posted on 09. Mar, 2010 by Chris Matney in Book Publishing, Front Page Posts

A reader turned me on to Jason Epstein’s wonderful projection in The New York Review of Books describing the publishing industry of the future entitled, Publishing: The Revolutionary Future.

Part of what I like about the article is that Mr. Epstein talks about the elimination of the redundant traditional publisher infrastructure and non-essential services. The next generation publishing houses will be less about warehousing and distributing returnable physical books and more about good editors providing solid content. This has long been my position on the basics of the upcoming revolution.

The author also talks about the Espresso Book Machine which I think will be one part of a two part solution that re-writes the map for fiction novels. The other, of course, is the e-reader (or more accurately the iBook app) – but that is another story. If my local bookstore had one of these babies, I would never have a reason to order a book on Amazon or hit the big box bookstore.

I encourage you to read the article. Yeah, it’s long, but it is so right. And, I would love to hear your comments.