Change in the book industry will continue to occur rapidly and the businesses that will succeed are those that simultaneously anticipate and adapt to change. In large part, this means meeting the needs of consumers who want to read what they want, when and where they want and in whatever medium they want. Such was the consensus among speakers during the annual meeting of the Book Industry Study Group, held last Friday in New York City.

For her part, outgoing BISG president Dominique Raccah of Sourcebooks warned that we will all face "much more dramatic change. We're just at the beginning; we're not even a third of the way in." And change will be "nonintegrative and much more disruptive." Things have changed so much that her company has redefined itself, she said. "We are about books and authors, not content. I thought we would be a publisher and not be about books. Now I'm a developer in the book space."

Citing litigation and new "device after device after device," among other things, Len Vlahos noted that much has happened in the year since he began as executive director of BISG. "In some ways, the book industry is more like the consumer electronics industry than the genteel carriage trade" of legend. Still, he said, there are constants that make BISG important: "As long as someone wants a book and someone else wants to buy it, there will be a supply chain." And inevitably, he said, there is "friction in the supply chain."

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