Publishing Trends in 2008

Libraries and Publishing have always been inextricably linked. Publishers’ Weekly has this article that’s worth a read:
15 Trends to Watch in 2008
By Mike Shatzkin, Publishers Weekly, 1/7/2008
My favourite quote:
“The Internet will drive 21st-century publishing enterprises to be more like what professional publishing has always been: highly vertical and format-agnostic.”
And here are the top 15 highlights (more behind the link):
1. The popularity of e-books will increase.
2. Sales of books in electronic form to public libraries will continue to grow.
3. This will be the Year of the Author.
4. Publishers will start acquiring specialized Web sites to get content for their books and to target niche audiences.
5. Christmas 2008 will be the first one in which sales of customized books, enabled by the Internet and print-on-demand, will become substantial.
6. XML will no longer be considered optional.
7. Apple, seeing the growth in use of Kindle and Sony Reader, will move to turn the iPhone and iPod into e-book readers.
8. B&N will continue to leverage the book trade’s most sophisticated supply chain to lengthen its lead over Borders and all other bricks-and-mortar retailers.
9. The lack of a competitive supply-chain infrastructure will continue to handicap Borders, hurting both sales and profits.
10. Although overall sales will remain paltry, increased activity by publishers selling direct to consumers from their Web sites, particularly digital downloads, will lead to “read and listen” bundles of e-books and digital audio and other pricing experiments.
11. Literary agents will begin to experience the same kind of consolidation that has hit other parts of the book business.
12. Publishers will rethink the traditional sales conference and begin to move toward a continuous publishing model.
13. Some publishers will begin producing a hardcover edition of every paperback and a large-print edition of every title.
14. Publishers will push harder to publicize books through the Internet channels as print and broadcast media continue to lose audience to the Web.
15. In addition to being the Year of the Author, 2008 will be the Year of the Experiment.
Interesting list.
Stephen