Sell Your Dream And You’ll Live The Nightmare

Richard Nash: Book Publishing 10 Years in the Future

3. Most predictions for 2020 based on models derived from controlling the supply side, that is, from the monopoly on the means of producing and distributing books, will be wrong. By which I mean, the supply chain book publishing and retail model is ending. The book retail chains will disappear, just like Circuit City, Sharper Image, Tower Records disappeared. And the corporate publishers will likely all but disappear just as Atari, Digital, Wang disappeared though the backlists will be spun off to private equity companies looking for semi-predictable IP-based cash flow, and a couple of front list publishing enterprises will likely be operating trying to emulate the Hollywood blockbuster model with just about enough success to be able to stay in business.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

He is seeing farther out than I have.

And he is absolutely correct about that.

This is your future if you have a contract with a print publisher:

Enjoy watching private equity feed off your creations while you starve.