BEA Confronts Changes In Book Publishing

Posted on May 22, 2006

The main topic of discussion at Book Expo America is all of the changes going on in the book publishing industry. Technology is changing the way readers read books, and the amount of time that people spend reading is shrinking.

According to The Washington Times, Google was at the invent and they were literally handing out free cookies if you would try Google Book Search.

Daniel Menaker, executive editor in chief at the Random House Publishing Group, told the Times, "At my age [64], I wish it was as simple as holding on to the older way of doing things. This is a convention that is haunted by questions about the future."

BEA was quite contentious, with the literati and the technorati squaring off over the question of how new technology will (or should) affect the copyrights of authors. Our answer: technology is merely a tool for delivering content -- including good books -- to readers. It shouldn't affect the legal rights of authors at all. Just because new technology makes infringing a working author's copyright easier, doesn't mean that it should be allowed to happen.