Ten Bold Predictions for Ebooks and Digital Publishing in 2014

Digital Book World

Kindle as Magic Eight Ball. Illustration by Todd Goldstein, 2012

It’s been another exciting year for the publishing industry – perhaps the most dynamic in the history of the business. In 2013, all ebooks by publishers became subject to retailer price controls and ebook prices plummeted. At the same time, ebook revenue growth has tapered off even as many of the largest publishers still reported digital gains. A handful of ebook subscription businesses were launched and libraries won some key victories in their fight to bring ebooks from all publishers to their patrons.

Nobody saw it coming. Well, almost nobody. A team of publishing experts predicted in late 2012 some of the astounding developments we saw in 2013 for Digital Book World. Read their predictions here.

Seeing as though 2013 is just about over, we’ve gathered more publishing experts to predict what extraordinary events are to come in book publishing in 2014. This year, we had so many insightful predictions to choose from – it was hard to pick just these ten. Stay tuned in the coming days for more predictions, those that hit the cutting-room floor.
In the interest of being truly bold, we’re going to start with the boldest predictions first. Enjoy.

1. Barnes & Noble will close or sell Nook and go private. 

2. Amazon will go the way of Barnes & Noble…and open its own physical stores in 2014.

3. Trade publishers will sell and acquire assets to “verticalize” their businesses. 

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