FutureBookCreating the future of publishing together

Creating a shared vision of innovation

What will the world of publishing be like in 2020?

How will people use books alongside other media? Will they evolve as disposable commodities, or as more personal, collectable luxuries? How will people learn, read and share knowledge? How will the printed book work with digital media in more hybrid experiences?

We explored the future with industry keynotes and panel discussions, roundtables on hot topics, and one to one. We debated the challenges and opportunities – from new business models to new finishes, the growth in digital printing, the benefits of short runs and personalization, of no returns and zero stock.

However, many of us agreed that the benefits have not been quantified. We need to make the case, so that colleagues see the bigger picture, and are ready to make long-term commitments. Most importantly we need to imagine better books –reducing costs is important, but creating new reading experiences, new revenues streams, real innovation, is how we will all grow, and succeed together.

Perhaps the biggest challenge lies in the relationship between publishers and printers, and printers and manufacturers. New partnerships are required to automate the whole “order-print-distribute” chain. We need common standards, more flexible processes, a better approach to environmental issues, and some new rules.

It should be easy to print on demand, anywhere in the world, with the push of a button. E-books are not an alternative but a showcase to buy real books. Personalisation can transform the way we learn, like demonstrated in Turkey with educational books prepared specifically to the strengths and weakness of each student.

Learning from the music industry, the ability to print any book anywhere creates a “long tail” of demand – markets of infinite niches passionate about specialist topics. Instead of mainstream books for average people, we create special books for individuals, who love them and will pay more. Imagine premium books sold by subscription, through specialist affinity channels, maybe crowd-sourced or co-created, engaging audiences with a passion for the content.

This requires a new mindset across our industry. Whilst we can improve the efficiency of our old models, this simply delays our decline, and masks our potential irrelevance. By imagining new experiences, new business models, and new ways of working together, we can create a better future.

Opportunity Map for Publishing 2020

Three big themes emerged from the Canon-facilitated experience – creating a roadmap to seize the best opportunities in our changing world, to define where we together need to go, and what we need to do to get there.

The opportunities are brought together in our opportunity map for the future of publishing:

1. Future of publishing: creating a shared vision including the business case for a better approach, focusing on the big drivers of profitable growth.

2. Connecting the system: designing better ways to work together, beyond the traditional, linear value chain, with new partnerships and processes.

3. New markets creation: actively shaping the future of books in our own vision, the new reader experience, the new business models, the new markets.

We then explored the components of these themes in more detail, prioritizing activities by their likely commercial impact, as well as their time to market:

1. Creating an inspiring vision: defining how innovative printed books will add value to people’s lives, and how the publishing and printing industry can deliver this.

2. Defining the business case: demonstrating the commercial logic for long-term investments, new revenues, and reduced costs, driving profit growth

3. Creating a future showcase: bringing together great examples from across the world, of how books are being innovated in concept, format and delivery.

4. Automating the system: mapping out a better way in which the industry works together, automation of components, and how they fuse together.

5. Establishing common standards: defining the shared requirements so that we can work together easily, whilst still enabling creativity and customization.

6. Building a global network: building a network of partners, that enable books to be created, printed and distributed fast and without borders.

7. Creating new revenue models: from crowdsourcing to subscription, luxury editions to personalization, defining the range of new ways to make more money.

8. Finding new markets: exploring the new emerging categories, fusing with other sectors, and diversity of niche audiences for books.

9. Engaging extreme users: collaborating with influencers and innovators, authors who experiment, readers who want more, the people who move us forwards.

None of us can achieve this on our own. As an industry we need to create a better future in which we can all win, in which new technology works for us, not against us. This means working practically in small and large groups to

make these themes real, to share the vision, and the benefits.

Together, the future of books is ours to make happen.