The Future of Publishing

I was kicking myself this morning for not getting my blog post done on Friday like usual, but I'm glad I waited considering this week's topic for my class is the future of publishing and where we think it'll be in ten years. I got to see a Kindle2 at work today, and I think that my post might have been somewhat different if done before seeing the Kindle2 and talking at length to its owner.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I don't relish in the idea that books may one day go completely digital. In fact, I've said that I hope I'm not alive to see that day. But, after seeing the Kindle2 and talking to its owner, I am definitely a believer that the Kindle will play a concrete role in the transformation of publishing.

I don't think that everyone will eventually own a Kindle, nor do I think that books will ever go completely away, but I do think that the Kindle will change the kinds of materials that are published traditionally. I can see textbooks going digital, especially since the Kindle2 lets you annotate a text. I can also see periodicals going digital--especially in light of a Business Insider article which details how much money the New York Times could save by sending their subscribers a free Kindle instead of printing a paper version.

More novels will eventually be digital, too, but there are just some things that the Kindle cannot recreate. Imagine trying to read a children's picture book on a Kindle. I don't think so. How about a full-color coffee table book? Nope, wouldn't be the same. While there are books like these that will never transition into digital versions, I think that in ten years it will be normal to carry your novels on a Kindle.

I see the Kindle taking off like the iPod. Ten years ago would you have imagined that you'd be able to carry your entire music collection in your pocket? Probably not. It caught on slowly, but surely, and now it seems as though every other person walking down the street in Portland is plugged into white earbuds.

Increased popularity of the Kindle will give smaller publishing companies a greater chance of survival, especially since there will no longer be expensive printing and warehousing costs. I think that we may be on the cusp of a publishing industry made up of more independents and fewer conglomerates, and I think that's a very exciting prospect.

When I started the PSU publishing program last fall, I had the idea that everything was bad news for the publishing industry. Five months later I have a very different view. Now I see all the changes the industry has undergone as potential. It's no longer grim; it's exciting. I cherish my traditionally printed books, and I'm still not certain I REALLY want a Kindle, but I'm perfectly happy to drool over someone else's and think about how maybe, with digitalization, the publishing industry may flourish once again.