2016 - it has been agreed - is the worst year ever, and publishing hasn't escaped the catastrophe. When one of the opening keynote speakers at #FutureBook16, Tim Hely Hutchinson of Hachette UK, said "the book market is in secular decline" it felt like time to get our coats. Indeed, later in conference Andrew Keen asked the audience why we were in the book business at all, suggesting that we should go and get real jobs.
It's easy to feel our jobs are threatened. Publishers are being disintermediated as technology connects readers and writers directly. The rapid pace of audio, video and digital has left the analogue book gathering dust. While virtual and augmented reality chase each other around the hype cycle, chatbots replace human conversation and the internet of things connects our devices, turning people into mere data points.
Despite all this, #FutureBook16 ended up by feeling like a celebration of all that is human in the book industry. Whether we're empathising with customers' problems, testing ideas with users, attracting talented staff or collaborating with startups, it is people - their insights, skills, differences and vulnerabilites - that are fuelling the digital revolution in publishing