Here at Tor.com, we’re always interested in the future of publishing both in an irreverent sense (so by the time of Star Trek V, we take a huge step back?) as well as in a serious manner. Tor.com story readers themselves are never shy about wanting epub versions for their readers, and the very definition of science fiction involves a healthy dose of anticipating the future. Who better to talk about the future than those of us interested in SF&F, right? Recently SF Signal conducted interviews with numerous editors and experts from the field to share their thoughts on this ever-evolving topic.
Among those weighing in were Neil Clarke and Cheryl Morgan of Clarkesworld Magazine, Gordon Van Gelder of Fantasy & Science Fiction, author Nick Mamatas, author Lou Anders, and author Tim Pratt.
Cheryl Morgan thinks the changing forms of publishing may put fiction writers in danger of being able to make money purely from writing, a view largerly echoed by Tim Pratt.
Neil Clarke believes that despite massive changes like this, print books will still exist, while Nick Mamatas thinks the ratio will settle to about 60% of books in print, 40% solely eletronic.
Gordon Van Gelder says that it is far too early too tell, and that technology can rapidly change in ten years in ways no one can predict, while Lou Anders isn’t too concerned with the medium as long as books exist in some for or another.
The entire conversation from SF Signal can be found here. So what do you think? What wil be the dominant form of books in 10 years time? Direct download into our grey matter? What about pill form? A Kindle that comes as a contact lens?
