So let’s look back at the 2010s and get into some of the publishing predictions that never came true. This list doesn’t include every prediction that missed the mark because it would be a long recount of events; different people from different parts of the industry made their own wild guesses. But rather, this includes widely believed or popular forecasts.
“Ebooks Will Make Paper Books Irrelevant” or “95% of All Reading Will Be On Screens”
But more than a decade after that, print books are still going strong — unlike the majority of newspapers and magazines that disappeared and/or went digital. Though ebooks are still popular these days, print books remain the go-to format.
“Interactive eBooks Will Become Popular”
The great ebook scare also brought this prediction that ebooks will evolve by incorporating multimedia and/or interactive content. Though these features certainly exist these days, especially in academic content, interactive ebooks have not caught on in trade publishing. I’m a digital publisher, and aside from writing, I code ebooks for a living. Developing interactive ebooks, whether as an ePub or a standalone app, is so damn expensive. Imagine doing that for every single book. Aside from being demanding for the publisher, this is one of the reasons why, I think, they didn’t latch onto this format. They got it all wrong.
“Barnes & Noble Will Rise Again, Like a Phoenix”
The bookstore was also plagued with many problems and controversies in the past few years. Many of its locations closed at the height of ebook’s popularity, and it plans to close more stores this year. In 2020, B&N was heavily criticized for reissuing covers of white-authored classic books that reimagine the characters as people of color. The bookstore is now in a downward spiral.
