Bob Stein once defined the book as "a user generated media, where readers and sometimes authors congregate." In recent years, Kindle and Nook have stirred the pot, but that's definitely not the whole story. What, to you, is the future of the book?

Authors don't have readers, just like companies no longer have customers. In both cases, you have users. They use you to solve problems. The future of the book lies in its ability to solve the user's problem, and do so through an interface they love to use.

I don't even dig the word "user," because of the whole drug mindset. Participants? Partners? Because boy, a book is a partnership. When I read Ender's Game, I was COMPLETELY part of the team.

Audio books. Not in the form of CDs or casette tapes. Your Kindle or nOok will read to you when you want to relax and close your eyes ( not while driving of course) The only times that we don't muti-task is driving ( Yes! I am naive;) ) and sleeping. Having a book read to you can be relaxing. Imagine being able to choose who will read the book to you. Many moons ago I used to wish there was traffic in the Washington Dc beltway so I could finish the book that was at the exciting finish.

Yeah, user is a charged word. Consumer is slightly less negative, but still I get your point about partnering (in certain cases). What I'm getting at is that when someone buys your book or your widget, unless you are cause driven, they are simply acquiring your solution - and doing so with a pretty utilitarian POV. Even the people that bought 50 Shades did so to solve a particular need.

PS - there's research on the difference between use (he used me) version use (how can I be of use).

@Shashi - you're not wrong that listening is a great way to keep our head in the game. I find, however, that what works BEST for most people is a blend. I did this with Charles Duhigg's Power of Habit ( interview with him here: youtu.be ) . Book *and* audiobook. It gave me the most benefits. Because the book let me shred up the concepts, especially if there was a table. But it was the COMBO of both, not one over the other.

Like so many people out there I have hard time finding the time to read. I have stacks of books on my bedside table. I believe the lack of time will not prevent people from reading, it's just that people will be very selective of as to what to pick up to read. Just like anything else - social networks, blogs, TV shows etc.
@Chris I need to check out the book(and the interview). It would be interesting if the paper/audio/digital books can be synched somehow. Maybe possible in few years...

In the future, errors in books will be caught by readers, communicated with a few clicks to the publisher and fixed like a software bug. And via digital publishing (eBook and print on demand), code ships daily. Not so today. Just read Crossing the Chasm, a classic that's been 'updated' 3 times and there are still simple copy errors like, "let met now discuss." #WikiFiCation

Small picture stuff:

Paper definitely works better in the airplane on the ascent and descent. And one disadvantage of e-books is that you can't share them as easily. (The Amazon time limit for sharing, plus the limit of one share are both bad things.)

When I talk about the future of the book, by the way, MY perspective is the concept of what keeps a book viable, what will morph a book from "rectangle of paper" into "multi-faceted interaction."

But know this, too. I use technology this way TODAY. Right now, I'm reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, upon suggestion from @jcqly . I have the audiobook and the Kindle version and I switch back and forth. When I'm driving, I listen. When I get home, I switch to the Kindle. Around bedtime, I go back to listening.

Now, what STINKS is that none of this is synced. I have to do it manually. But the tech is smart enough to know about bookmarks. There's no reason a publisher couldn't make tech to link the two. It's just not how the industry is now.

Books as objects have a long life. The generation that don´t read books and only reads on tablets and computers isn´t born, yet.

@leo - but the question isn't whether we'll stop using paper. It's more a question of what will constitute a book in the next handful of years. When you hear book, do you ONLY think paper?

@Chris Sure not, the last 10 books i bought, 4 were digital. But I think it will last longer than we think, because of thins like battery of gadgets, the fact that a book you throw in a case or a bag, without case, without care. I think paper book will still be aroud for a couple of years. But i know that, somewhere in the next years, book will no longer sinonim of paper.

Books have always been catalysts for conversations. Some book convo's will last forever. (e.g., Bible, Qur'an, Descent of Man, etc.)

Me thinks @Chris's points on sync'ing and a book being a partnership + @Tim's points on usefulness and ongoing updates + social media/Web3.0 = the conversation and the community are becoming hardwired into the book itself. That the book, even the dead-tree version, will never be a stand-alone item again…What people get out of it, and want to add to it, will be forever sync'ed into it.

One way to look at the future of the book is through interactive story telling. Even old books could be upgraded by publishers to offer that experience. The immersion into a paper / print novel is something else, and isn't easily replicated on an e-reading platform.

Just a plug because it fits here. At SXSW, @sanderssays and myself and @goodreads and..um..someone else (dang!) will be talking about the Future of the Book, if people choose our panel.

panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/4760

I find it pretty interesting that the majority of this conversation here has been about the format of the book in the future, and not the way that it reaches readers (or users). Tools and applications like YouTube, Instagram, SoundCloud, Reddit and others have shown that the Internet has an incredible democratizing force, allowing previously disenfranchised audiences a place to collect and interact around content that means something special to them. As I work for Wattpad (wattpad.com) I'm a little biased of course, but I believe that the future of books includes a stronger ability for audiences and authors to find each other and collaborate around the story itself.

Relevant link by China Mieville: guardian.co.uk

I can see things like one-off book printing becoming huge as well as a growth of special editions of certain books. Something similar to the upswing in vinyl collecting in music. With that, I can also see that there will be a good amount of small run, highly specialized publications coming out.

I can also see, if we're going to have self-driving cars coming to market, that there will be a lot more reading going on in the future. I'm always struck by how many people on the NYC subway system are reading books, magazines, and newspapers.

It depends on the book. I think reference books and/or Journals will very quickly find themselves digital in a non-book form. They are essentially small databases of knowledge that were bound into paper because there was nothing better at the time. Now we have Wikipedia, and/or smaller private curated Wikis. I don't think Reference Books will be around much longer.

I think what will survive is the book as a cherished object. I will always own paper copies of my favorite books. They sit on my shelf, and it's much easier for a guest to see that I've read something and ask me about it. I can pass that down to my children, or lend.

But my first read, or that book I'm not so sure about? I'm going to read it on my Kindle.

I don't know about the disappearance of reference books. There is just so much non-digitized non-fiction out there that it will take a very, very long time to make its way to the internet. Combine that with copyright issues and DRM, and we're going to be sitting around for a long time waiting for reference materials to be digitized.

A spinoff question: What does everyone think the future of readership will be like? More or less frequent? Short pieces? Long books? Etc.

The last couple posts, and bridge player especially, make excellent points in differentiating between the form of a book and the function of a book. I see books as a crystallization of a form of storytelling/information dissemination.

The function of books is to tell stories. The way in which they do that is inextricably tied to their form, for example in the way they favor the eye to inform the other senses.

There are two things that are exciting to me about advancements in digital platforms in relation to books and reading.

The first is the possibility for multi-modal interactive storytelling that better engage the sensorium in its entirety.

The second is in the possibility for published materials to be deconstructed and contextualized from the perspective of an empowered user.

I like the @ChrisBrogan's idea of the syncing audio/digital book. Or even a service that reads my digital book a little more naturally. That takes the limited amount of time a reader would have and adds commuting, housework... even shower time to the available "reading time" pool. That makes a long book easier to manage.

I wonder if books will follow video media - where stories are told not in one long movie, but in a series of shorter "episodic" pieces. I realize that sci-fi and fantasy have been doing this for a while, but I can't think of much contemporary fiction that does. I don't know that we'll see the like of chap books, but I wouldn't be surprised if we started to see something between chap book and sci-fi/fantasy novel.

My main excitement is about the future of how books get made from concept to screen/page. That's a part of the industry where the process is hopelessly broken. Authors sell their books off to corporate publishers to acquire services like editorial and marketing. And they get less than ever for the same royalty rate. So, many are resorting to self-publishing to control their destiny. Unfortunately, when they do, the product suffers greatly. The future of the book production process, I believe, will be fueled by teams, cobbled together via the social and project graph. And they'll make great books that get to market while they are still relevant!

I really don't know what the future of the book will be. Here in libraries we're seeing lots of things: ebooks, databases, and more but the problem we're facing is how to best get those to our communities in an easy manner. Right now, it's not easy (see Overdrive, which most libraries are using these days goo.gl) for someone to just simply get an ebook on their device of choice.

Entered this Branch because I read a couple of pieces today (how's that for serendipity) by Nick Harkaway dealing with just this issue. Don't know that I have much to add, but he does deal with some of the issues discussed above, including the syncing thing.

welovethisbook.com

And a cool looking upcoming product somewhat related to this discussion, also via Harkaway.

futurebook.net

Interesting. Electronic is looking more and more as the future of book, or printed media. Personally, I don't mind. ebooks have with them their own advantages as well as disadvantages. But there's also this feeling that the adoption toward fully digital media is going faster than it should, and that we shouldn't be too quick to replace a medium we've been on for thousands of years especially when reading on paper and a computer monitor—at least, to me—are two entirely different experiences altogether.

Here's a way to think of the book format thing: What did data do to the cellular phone? Can we think of voice as the analog (pardon the pun) to physical books? If so, then what will ultra light (digital) books do to consumer habits over time and across generations?
I find publishers get stuck in the genre trap when they really should be boning up on psychographics & reading Innovator's Dillemma.

PS - there's a lot of great comments here, I'm growing fond of this branch. But then again, the future of the book is core thinking at Net Minds.

We have to fix about the new kind of art that born nowadays in this world. That isn't as in the past when a book was an object to collect. I think that everybody know the Remix movement and I think that all artist have to focus in it. If art, music and films were remix, why not books? So, in this technology future I think that papers don't win. I love paper and I feel different a book when I can touch his page, but is not only a question of how people read a book or how we prefer to read it.

Shareable and social is key. When we look at how the internet has evolved, social has enabled all of us regardless of voice, an outlet to share our ideas and consume ideas from others. We're not held down because of profitability of small niches. Books should be the same. There's a market for all shapes and sizes of books because if you love something, odds are someone else does. Assuming their well-written of course; life's too short for bad books! This is something that traditional publishers are incapable of providing because any book that falls outside a narrow view of profitability dies.

I don't want to suggest that this Branch has gotten off track. Not at all. I just think it would be helpful for us to communicate more clearly with each other if we might clarify at least a little, what we mean when we say "the book." For instance, I'm interested in the way's people define "the book." Either as a covered block of printed paper, or as a certain organization of content (like a novel or NYT best-seller non-fiction sort of book) that can be translated across different media (audio, ebook, paper, etc) without loosing it's "bookness." I see some of Al's and Mike Beltzner's comments (excellent, btw) as especially indicative of way's a conversation can fork when these definitions aren't foregrounded within one's position.

Good point, Trauman. I'll take the first stab: Book = Significant collection of words, images and ideas, packaged into a portable format. Emphasis: lotsa words, sharable.

What about movies? Treasure hunts?

The books ARE the future themselves. The problem is if there will be still the brains in the future able to understand the contents of books. Paper books are necessary to mankind for classics and chartas, just think about the importance of pergamon for us to know the Ancients. Elecrtonic and multimedia tools are welcome to ease the reading for everyday purpose. But, again, the problem is to preserve our brains from the assault of nothingness.

There is a lot of merit to physical books. I don't see them going anywhere in the near future. I do however reckon the experience of reading books will be improved using technology - Augmented reality in particular . I stumbled across an article recently about a book, whose reading experience can be augmented using an iPad. The app detects the book and provides multimedia information on the concepts discussed in the book. I've also linked a youtube video on an 'Interactive game book'. With multimedia, meta information and games, books of the future are going to have depth and completeness in the experience they provide

The true merit of a physical book is the smell and the tactile sensation, smell invokes powerful emotional memory and when I read my particular copy of a book it takes me right back to being a teenager in a way that reading the same words in an ebook or even a new copy just doesn't manage. For this reason I suspect that the stories we emotionally invest in will prosper as a traditional paper book.

As example I think that the iconic books of childhood - Narnia, Harry Potter etc. will be popular as a physical book way into the future, whereas the light, trashy, mature and even literary classics will become more popular on the ebook format.

The most exciting will be material designed with the added ebook features in mind from the outset

Well, if we think of the alphabet, paper, books, ebooks, etc. all as types of technologies, that might help us understand part of the book's future. Technologies never disappear, their use becomes smaller and more specialized. For instance, agricultural tools used to work in the fields a hundred years ago have been replaced by large machines, but the hand tools are still in use for the home gardener. Similarly, the book as an object will still be around for a long time because it has a certain value and functionality that's missing in ebooks. It's hard to resell an ebook. Additionally, you don't have to switch the format of a physical book as you would with an ebook over a long timescale.

If we think of the ebook as having the potential for instantaneous and near infinite distribution, it's certainly one of the best ways to transmit information, but it's a problem when not everyone has access to ereaders and we haven't really figured out DRM and licensing.

Look at libraries--they should be able to check out ebooks to an unlimited number of people because an ebook is infinitely copyable, but they can only check out x number of copies because they only purchased x number of licenses. The ebook will only come into its own when it's no longer tied to the socially constructed constraints of physical books.

The last e-book chapter I read on iBooks simulated the page flip, which is about as animated as it gets, and the ability to change and increase font sizes etc. I'd still prefer to read a physical copy, but hey. Whether readers are able to embrace new formats, writers are willing to continue writing and existing publishers can adapt is all up for discussion. At a book fair I attended earlier this year, the market seemed to know e-publishing was the future, but there was a fair amount of resistance OH, of that possibility.

If we are all, slowly, going a little blind from too much screen time, then physical books will need to be large print. Otherwise, the killer app of eBooks will not be portability or price...but font scalability!

What does everyone think about the @unglueit model (unglue.it)??? I know they've run into a snafu with their payment processing recently (blog.unglue.it) but other than that it looks really promising.

Here's their first "unglued" ebook: unglue.it

@Daniel Sisson You bring up a good point. It's quite possible that years from now, with children's literature like The Little Prince, paper books will still be the preferred medium while free digital copies of modern pop novels like Twilight and 50 Shades are going to make the rounds of people's email addresses, which is pretty much happening already.

Thanks for the add @Chris – great conversation! I think the definition of the book is still as it was: a collection of content, ideas, information, and inspiration in a portable format to be shared widely. The way in which this content is consumed has changed and will continue to evolve. The future of the book, as is with any viable product or service, is dependent upon meeting the needs/wants of the consumer – the end reader. We can create enhanced ebooks with video, audio, marginalia, and social sharing capabilities, in long and short form, but if it misses the mark with the consumer (whether the book is paid, shared, or borrowed), it’s pointless.

Its time we stopped using the word "book" since it is an artifact of the age of print and is loaded with assumptions and baggage that constrains thinking of what a container of information can be in this new world of the Internet.

It's interesting that the conversation has been about distribution models and minor changes to the form. Do we really think the idea of the book itself will not change? Is it some sort of Platonic ideal? I obviously don't have the answer, but what brought me to this was the Harkaway links way above where he was at least trying to envision something radically different than what we have today. Will something come along that will fundamentally alter the nature of the book? Is the love of the printed book just the last generation of physical book readers projecting their hopes on the future? Or if we continue to instill the love of the physical book on our children will we at least be able to keep them going for another generation or two?

Well @Bob, you posted that as I was writing my last post, I guess we were thinking along the same lines. :)

great minds think alike. Now what can we do in this new world that was impossible in print. The more we maximize that the faster we will get mindshare shift.

@bob what is mindshare shift?

@Al, responding to what is mindshare shift - the concept of the book now owns the mindshare for a container of information. A shift means it will no longer own the mindshare (aka the meme). We are now in a transition period though which will be marked by confusion and disagreement as the new meme (mindshare) forms.

Possibly more collaborative writing, like we've seen here on Branch in a couple of places. I'm also wondering, although this gets back more to distribution, if the rise of self & micro publishers could lead to the rise of micro or pop-up bookstores promoting their authors. Would be nice to have local bookstores again (we actually do have one even here in Peoria, Illinois).

If the term "book" is an artifact of the past then what do think about the future of bookstores? What role will they play in the linkage between readers and authors? Of key importance is how will that role be monetized. Today it is by selling printed books. Tomorrow it will be by ......?

The book, as a collection of ideas and words, as @Stacie puts nicely, needs to serve the reader. Features, quality and discoverability need to serve that end goal.

In the early internet days of flaming gifs and Pamela Anderson keyword spamming, poor content quality started saturating the web quickly. In indexing content, search brought a new mechanism of quality checks. Social media is helping that quality check more. Both have a ways to go, but their value lies in vetting quality and discoverability.

Self-publishing allows anyone to jump into book content creation, but now we need a better mechanism in place to vet quality and discoverability, so that readers can find great books and aren't spammed with bad books.

Thanks @Alan - and you cover a lot in your last paragraph - all of which I agree!

Today's Amazon Kindle Paperwhite and New Kindle Fire HD announcement just adds to our discussion here.

New features for 'immersive reading':

* Listen to the Audiobook flip to the eBook bookmarked in your place (just what @shashib upthread was wishing for)
* New "X-ray" reference feature - character bios, synopsis, setting, author bio at a glance
* More opportunities to self-publish with Amazon - 70% royalty-rate
* Kindle Serials - subscribe to a single author, get their upcoming work delivered automatically, and more...

The press conference is just ending, check out the live blog link @gigaom. Media storm, to follow, I'm sure!

A Press Release from Amazon may be of interest:

Audible and Amazon Introduce “Immersion Reading” and “Whispersync for Voice”—Two Momentous Steps Forward for Reading

From the press release (thank you @stacie)..."Reading and listening together has been shown to increase the motivation to read, and it can have meaningful impact on reading retention."

Are reading and listening interchangeable? I am a slow reader. I have to read a page several times until I am comfortable I understand enough to move on. The press release states,

“For struggling readers, narration can provide decoding support... Hearing something read with expression provides additional clues to the meaning beyond the words themselves.”

Is reading:listening::bike:motorbike? Is this another attack on self-efficacy by digital convenience? What is better, earned or given?

@Al, Personally, I don't like to focus on earned/given when it comes to reading. I look at reality TV among other things as an assault on the written word and on storytelling in the traditional (there's technically "storyline" to the train wreck that is Jersey Shore).

The brilliance of books is that words generate a mental picture. Whether those words are read by you or to you, you form your own mental picture of that book. That is really what matters in the book... you are immersed in the words through your own imagination. AWESOME!

@Stacie, thanks. Totally agree on the values of immersion reading; it adds an amazing feature for continuity of consuming your favorite books where ever you are. It will be interesting to see reader response.

Books will change in the way the publishing industry changes. Do you remember that Charles Dickens used the serial publication to allow people who could not afford a proper book enjoy of the stories?

Well, my bet is that we will go back to that serialization of books to monetise earlier and consume faster.

A book will be a book, even if it's not made of paper.

The book has simply changed forms. Before the paperback, it was a scroll, before that stone tablets, and at some point they were waxed (which was melted and used to re-write something deemed more important).

Now the new form the book has taken (digital), changes what it is and adds functions to it that it has never had before. It adds shareability, participation, interaction—the possibilites are endless. These functions can enhance our reading experience, and are only possible on the digital medium.

In its physical form, books are scarce, in the sense that it's finite, unlike digital. It's precious, it's beautiful, and it's limited, there's weight and emotion in this.

Craig Mod has excellent essays exploring the book craigmod.com

Maybe someone has mentioned this already, but it seems like there are two issues with this question:
- will the delivery format of books change?
- will the content and authorship of books change?

Regarding the first, clearly digital delivery is here to stay, and I think that's a natural progression. I'll miss things about physical copies, and I think they'll stick around in a limited sense, but like Calvin Cheng said, a digital format enhances the reading experience in a lot of ways.

Regarding the second, I think there will also be a shift in authorship and subject matters. Easier access to outlets will result in an explosion of new authors, much like indie music artists.

The old system had benefits, but the new one will as well.

Also something to consider is the effect digital books will have on the largest, and arguably most important, portion of society that reads: children.

Digital books have made it possible for adults on the go to read, and that's awesome. But I wonder if we're taking that explosion of reading to mean more than it should. How many 8-year olds are running around with Kindles, or are able to not lose or destroy them? It would be too expensive to give an entire third-grade class iPads.

If books go completely digital, I worry about how that will affect children, or readers in low-income/third-world environments. For digital you need reliable internet and energy access. For print you need... the book.

There seems to be general agreement that the future of the book is on the Internet. Taking as a starting point that the future of the book on the Internet is as a container of information, I contend that we will know we are there when that container cannot be printed.

It may be better to think of the book (and scrolls before it) are really extensions of the mind. In this context the future of the book on the Internet will take advantage of the new medium in ways we are only beginning to grasp. Along the way we will have to abandon the assumptions that were created by the form of the printed book, length being the first thing to fall by the wayside.