It is impossible to analyse the book publishing industry without considering the many sub-sectors operating within it. Trade, Educational, Academic, Scholarly, STM (Scientific, Technical, and Medical) and Children’s Publishing have all undergone significant transformation over the last ten years. However, several factors have, and continue to, reshape the industry as a whole:
Artificial Intelligence
Since 2016, a multitude of technological advances have revolutionised the way publishers operate, as well as how readers engage with content.
The improvements and wide-scale availability of AI are undoubtedly one of the most controversial industry topics of the last decade.
Generative AI used in drafting, editing and cover design is streamlining the publishing workflow. However, copyright issues surrounding LLMs using unauthorised content to train models are causing issues for both publishers and authors.
Augmented and Virtual Reality
With reading engagement plummeting and only one in three eight- to 18-year-olds enjoying reading in their spare time – a 36% drop in two decades (The Guardian) – many believe that augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) could be key to encouraging an increase in reading for pleasure in the digital era.
Through AR, children’s book characters can ‘jump’ off the page in 3D and stories can include interactive, animated scenes. VR has seen a blend between digital gaming and literature, whereby books include interactive narratives where user choices can influence the plot.
Print-on-Demand (POD) and Sustainability
A surge in POD printing in recent years is eliminating the need for large-scale print runs, allowing for immediate production upon order and reduced storage costs.
Industry pledges to improve sustainability by 2025 are being assisted by POD printing through reducing unnecessary wastage and distribution emissions.
Digital Rights and Blockchain
With the progress of the technological era has come a wave of digital rights and security issues. Since 2016, the industry has seen an increase in transparency and flexibility for readers and higher compensation for authors. Key advancements involve the adoption of blockchain for copyright management, as well as the evolution of DRM (Digital Rights Management), allowing better, non-proprietary access.
Cloud-Based Production Workflows
In recent years, there has been an increase in demand for cloud-based content management systems (especially since the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic) by publishers. The benefits of real-time collaboration between editors, authors, and designers are streamlining production workflows and reducing the need for expensive in-house servers.
For many publishers, digital-first content is becoming an increasingly popular method of production. With lower costs, faster publication times, and wider, instant international distribution, digital-first enables publishers and authors to test markets with rapid feedback and achieve higher royalties.
The rise of the digital era has seen a similar increase in hybrid book production models, where authors are opting to publish their content traditionally and independently.
With a wider variety of platforms for authors to choose from, such as Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, IngramSpark and Draft2Digital, the influence of the publishing ‘Big 5’ has drastically reduced their dominance over the changing industry landscape.
Over the last decade, self-publishing has truly taken the book industry by storm. Overcoming the initial stigma of ‘vanity publishing’, recent successful self-published books have helped reshape public and industry perceptions. These authors are not only demonstrating that self-publishing can lead to successful sales, but also that high-quality books are now accessible at lower cost than they used to be through digital production platforms.
Social media’s global reach has become a vital, cost-free tool for marketing self-published books.
Although social media is not a new phenomenon in the last decade, its influence on the industry is. Social media has transformed publishing into a digital-first, audience-driven industry, serving as a vital tool for marketing, building brands and fostering reader engagement.
Spiking in popularity during the Covid-19 lockdowns, platforms like TikTok (BookTok), Instagram (BookStagram), and Facebook continue to allow for direct, real-time connection between authors, publishers, and readers, often driving sales more effectively than traditional methods.
Ten years ago, it was predicted that ebooks were set to drastically impact print book revenue. While ebook sales have been responsible for a marginal decline in the popularity of physical books, the change has not been as drastic as initially anticipated. However, audiobook sales have far surpassed expected revenues.
It has been reported that audiobook sales rose by 31% between 2023 and 2024, with income reaching a record £268m in 2024, according to figures from the Publishers Association.
Audiobooks make reading more accessible, whether that’s for people with dyslexia or visual impairments, or simply those who struggle to find time to sit down with a traditional book. (The Guardian)
From the demographic of published authors and genres to the accessibility of the content produced, publishing has undergone a significant, yet ongoing, shift towards diversity and inclusion. The rise of audiobooks has encouraged a natural increase in the number of titles available in the accessible format, improving variety for readers.
Although progress has been made to diversify, in recent years the industry has stalled in implementing long-standing changes. It has been reported by the Publishers Association that ‘ethnic minority’ representation across the industry fell from 17% to 15% in 2024 (The Guardian). Despite several bestsellers last year, print book sales of titles by Black authors also fell 14% in 2024 (Publishers Weekly).
Even though the industry still has a long way to go to achieve diversity, the European Accessibility Act (EAA), which legally mandates accessible digital content, has driven publishers to take positive steps in the right direction.
To encourage awareness and the production of inclusive digital content, the DAISY Consortium is working closely with technology companies and standards agencies to ensure that the reading and publishing technology provides an accessible future for all.
The boom of AI in the last decade has created several potential avenues for publishers to ensure the production of accessible digital content. In 2026, InDesign introduced a feature to allow users to create AI-generated alt-text. Although the feature is currently only available in English, users have the option to add a preference to add an “AI generated content” tag to the alt text.
Challenges
Over the next decade, publishing undoubtedly faces numerous challenges and opportunities ahead – many anticipated, as well as some unexpected.
The problem of AI continues to linger in the minds of industry professionals and will do for some time. Until comprehensive legislation fully protects publishers, authors, and their content, copyright infringements and market saturation remain at the forefront of future challenges for publishing.
Although the enforcement of the EAA in June 2025 has ensured publishers are required to produce compliant content, it is not enough. Compliance alone does not ensure accessibility.
For example: heading hierarchy and alt-text could be present in an ebook, but that does not ensure either are adequate for their intended purpose. Investment in resources and workflow solutions is essential to truly meeting the needs of readers.
From shelves labelled ‘trending on social media’ in bookshops to Amazon’s Best Sellers list, the industry is dominated by the influence of online culture.
Promoting reader behaviour based on algorithms that sensationalise pop-culture trends, publishers face ensuring neglect literary quality and diverse voices are heard and remain unforgotten.
Opportunities
A typical paperback book accounts for around 1kg of carbon dioxide (BBC).
In 2023, the US alone sold 767 million paperback books, the equivalent electricity required to power more than 150,000 homes for a year (BBC).
Although the prospect of challenge can appear worrisome, it always brings with it the opportunity for future progress. With facts from the last decade as stark as the above, the industry must take more drastic action. Unfortunately, individual publishers trialling slimmer and lighter books, is simply not enough.
For the future of books to be greener and more sustainable, the industry needs to fully adopt, over the next decade, environmentally sustainable supply chain distribution models, evaluate packing materials, paper stock sourcing and manufacturing, as well as printing techniques and materials.
In response to the slump in reading for pleasure over the last decade, book publishers must be at the forefront of collectively addressing the issue.
Even though 2026 is The National Year of Reading, championing the biggest campaign in a generation, how effective are initiatives like this alone?
To date, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has provided over 308 million books (Imagination Library) to children across the US, Canada, UK, Australia and Republic of Ireland. Inter-generational programmes such as these are what the publishing industry need to establish permanent changes to reading habits.
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