Introduction Change has always made the publishing industry a little uneasy. It survived the shift from print to digital, the existential threat of self-publishing, and the chaos of social media marketing. Now, we’re staring down the barrel of generative AI, and the mood is a mixed bag of apocalyptic panic and breathless opportunity. If you … Read more
Introduction The question of whether American publishing is in decline is one that gets tossed around with predictable regularity. On one hand, you hear the doom-and-gloom reports: book sales are slowing, attention spans are shrinking, and the cultural landscape is fragmenting. On the other hand, publishing houses are still inking massive deals, BookTok is turning … Read more
Introduction The Portable Document Format (PDF) has reigned supreme in academic publishing for decades since its introduction by Adobe in the early 1990s. Its promise of preserving the exact look and layout of a document, regardless of the operating system, software, or hardware, was revolutionary for scholarly communication. A downloaded PDF from an obscure journal … Read more
Introduction Discussing Donald Trump and the publishing industry is like watching a financial thriller with a side of constitutional drama. He’s been simultaneously a boon to book sales and a potential disaster for the bedrock principles that publishing stands on: free expression, open discourse, and a stable, predictable economic environment. The sheer volume of books … Read more
Introduction Welcome to the future. Or, at least, a sneak peek at the slightly more immediate future of publishing in the year 2026. If the last few years have felt like a rollercoaster ride powered by a combination of generational shifts in reading habits, the relentless march of digital technology, and the slightly terrifying arrival … Read more