Seth Godin predicts the future of publishing

It's not the kind of thing we normally talk about on the FL blog, but the spate of 4-day weekends in the UK has put me in holiday mood, so here's a real cut-through-the-crap interview with Seth Godin on how digital publishing is going to affect the future of books. Takeaways: "Publishers are obligated, unprepared and mostly uninterested in adapting to a digital future," and, "Adding video, audio and other extras to books, as in the CD-Rom era, is worse than a distraction; it's a dangerous cul-de-sac that will end in tears."

Naturally epublishing interests us at Fabled Lands LLP because digital platforms are clearly a better medium than print where gamebooks are concerned. But, quite apart from the niche area of gamebooks, in the coming decade we're going to see high street bookstore chains disappear, the major publishers shrinking if not going out of business altogether, and a Burgess Shale explosion of innovation in book publishing that will create some marvels and not a few unhappy mistakes.

There's a skim overview of ideas about epublishing on CNN here, but listen to the Seth Godin interview because that's the real eye-opener. Interesting times ahead.