Scott Pack, Sky News Online

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

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Will We Need Books In 10 Years? By James Silver

The man who was once described as the "most powerful person in book publishing" has been taking a long, hard look at the future of the book itself.

The description - hyperbole certainly - came from The Guardian when Scott Pack led the buying team at Waterstone's, the high street chain.

He was in charge of deciding which authors would end up on the all important 'three-for-two special offers' tables, where books can go on to sell 10 times as many copies.

This ability to make-or-break writers - as well as his populist policy of choosing books the public "actually wanted to read" for in-store promotion - inevitably made him something of an industry hate-figure.

One magazine branded him "the Beelzebub of the book trade".

Another sneered at his background in the retail side of the music industry, gleefully reporting how "a leading literary agent" liked to refer to him as "Pot Snack - because he's so cheap and tasteless".

In the flesh, 37-year-old Pack is more Moby than Beelzebub.

Geeky and bookish, with a shaved head and square glasses, he is good company and talks faster than a racing commentator on a sugar rush.

Pack left Waterstone's 18 months ago to become commercial director of The Friday Project - which describes itself as "the world's first exclusively web-to-print publisher".

However, in early March it emerged that the groundbreaking business had gone into administration.

Two publishing giants - Random House and Harper Collins - are currently in talks to acquire it.

It is against this uncertain background that Pack agreed to be interviewed about the future of the book, ahead of a debate on publishing in the digital era at The London Word Festival.

Having witnessed the impact of the digital revolution on the music industry while working in a senior role for HMV, few in the book business are better placed to predict how we will be reading in 2018.

"We will still be reading books in printed form most of the time 10 years from now," he says, sitting in the basement kitchen of his Windsor home. "Although there will be areas where that will change."

"The big difference between books and the digital revolution in the music industry is that in music it was all about making your entire record or CD collection portable.

"The iPod allows you to listen to Shostakovich on the train, Kate Nash on the walk to the office and then Radiohead at your desk.

"But it doesn't work like that with books. You don't want to read James Joyce on the train, Maeve Binchy while you're walking and John Grisham at your desk.

"I've got every album I own on my iPod and can listen to anything I want whenever I want. But books are already portable and even if they weren't, you don't need to transport your entire library around wherever you go."

"Factors which were very important on the music side, just aren't at all with books."

However, some areas of book publishing will change "beyond recognition" over the next decade thanks to digital technology.

He points to a row of ageing cookery books on a shelf in his kitchen. "In 10 years' time we won't have cookery books any more.

"We'll have a flip-down screen by the cooker and we'll type in fish and 500 recipes will come up. And not only will the recipe be there, but I'll watch Delia or Jamie dice the carrots. We're almost there now with the technology."

Similarly, he thinks dictionaries, alongside reference books generally and printed travel guides will disappear altogether, as all the information they carry - and more - will be at our fingertips on our phones.

Many experts have predicted that we will soon be using a portable digital reading device such as Amazon's e-reader, the Kindle - which has been called 'the iPod of reading'. However, Pack isn't one of them.

"Reading things electronically is a dissatisfying experience. And I don't think that will ever completely be cracked by technology."

So when we walk into our local branch of W H Smith's and Waterstone's in 10 years, will we see the same number of books on display?

"I reckon 80% of today's level of books will still be there," he replies.

"Fewer books will be published as a whole, because the strike rate [for successful books] is going down and I think there'll be some form of digital electronic media.

"But what I cannot see is someone walking in with their e-reader or whatever, plugging it into the Smith's console and downloading the latest John Grisham.

"I can see a few people doing that...but I just can't see the majority of people doing that."

Posted by James Silver - On Tuesday, March 18, 2008

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