Malcolm Gladwell at BEA on the future of publishing

Malcolm on stage with Brad Stone at IDPF's Digital Book 2013, from Jane Friedman's blog

As reported by Robin Dellabough in Publisher's Lunch, this is from Malcolm Gladwell's interview by Brad Stone at BEA's IDPF Digital Book Conference last week,

Although he agreed that the publishing industry faces extraordinary challenges, Gladwell believes that publishers and booksellers can redefine who they are and what they want to be. "They're in transition, and it's hard to know what they'll end up as, but they can't go away. They'll figure it out because no industry sells something people want and need more than the book industry. If they were selling Styrofoam, I'd be worried, but books have tremendous impact on people's lives."

Someone needs to make that a t-shirt.

"If they were selling Styrofoam, I'd be worried, but books have a tremendous impact on people's lives." - Malcolm Gladwell

For another take on BEA's focus on the digital future (and present) of book publishing, Jane Friedman reported about it on her blog.  

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee