Raccah is the owner of Sourcebooks and the Co-chair of the Book Industry Study Group. Sourcebooks is one of the fastest growing publishers in America.

Never been a bigger opportunity in our business. World is getter bigger and publishing will be radically altered. Books will only be one product of the stuff next generation of publishers will produce.

2009 97% pbooks and 3% ebooks with most books being sold by physical stores. In music the transformation from physical to electronic – in 6 years since the introduction of CDs still 60% of music on CDs – even though music stores disappeared. Transformation in book and mortar distribution was much faster than the transformation of the materials themselves. Suspect the same thing is happening with books.

Google Editions will turn every blog into a bookseller. Book stores now becoming available on various ereaders and electronic platforms. Also an explosion of other sources such as Smashwords, Blio, etc. with many different standards and business models.

Change from book publisher ? We don’t know yet. 3 trends to change publishing’s future:

1. always connected (Google aiming at this market – Google’s market is “anyone who is on line” – 5% of people went to a bookstore last year but huge percentage of people on line). Consumers now expect to connect with the author

2. Liquid/seamless media: sync functionality. “interstitial reading” can now read all the time. Consumers are saying “what I want, when I want”. This may change overseas market rights.

3. Economics: consumer expects lower prices with ebooks. Industry need to communicate better that the printing part is only a small part of what they do. Moving from a world where things are sold to a world where things are bought.

Publishers are being squeezed by self-publishers and etailers. Publishers should be in the business of creating new ways of delivering content. 3 kinds of opportunity: ebooks and enhanced ebooks; apps, making the book interactive; web based content, communities, programs.

The publishing world has gotten a lot bigger. Can make the book you want and the book you need available any time and anywhere.

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