9 November 2015
Michael Bhaskar argues that a saturated market and retail consolidation will drive change in publishing over the next five years.
If one thing defines the last five years in publishing, at least in English, I'd argue it's retail consolidation. That Amazon carried on growing and dominated ebooks is unarguable. When I started in publishing, Amazon was a small account to most of the big houses. Now it bestrides the entire industry and everyone plays catch-up. But it wasn't just that: the loss of Borders, the consequent focus on B&N and Waterstones: it all added up to the fact that books were being sold through a decreasing number of channels.
