What Is The Future Of Books?

 

Can we speculate, with any certainty, about the future of books, any more than we can speculate what the world and society will be like centuries or millennia henceforth?

I am currently binge-watching a show, The Last Kingdom (Netflix), that is set in late ninth century England, and wondering if I could have survived in a world filled of war, disease, and ignorance. But then I realized that every generation has to confront some level of challenge and to live by a standard that future generations will neither understand nor accept. And so, today’s world will seem as bizarre to people in the 33rd century as the 800’s seem to us now.

In the year 3225, if the world has not been annihilated by nuclear catastrophe, climate meltdown, or an ET invasion, likely there will still be wars, diseases, and ignorance dictating things. It may also have robots enslaving humans or humans that are significantly engineered by, and outfitted with, pieces of technology. The human experience may not be so human.

I am not a futurist, nor can futurists really estimate anything with any accuracy more than a generation or two ahead of us. But we know about human nature and have thousands of years of history to reflect upon. Whatever the world will be like, we can predict its fate based on patterns of human behavior — unless the very essence of being human changes.

The use of prosthetic limbs, mind-altering and life-extending drugs, manufactured foods, surgical enhancements of body parts for function or appearances, and the co-management of life through our smart phones have begun altering the human experience. But these are all crude and rudimentary compared to what is to come, though I can’t tell you exactly what those inventions and applied resources will be.

At some point, there will be game-changers that not only revolutionize our lives but transform who we are and what it means to be human. The landscape for life will at some point expand beyond our planet and will include outside entities influencing and impacting us. The alien world likely exists, and if it does, we shall either find them or they us. When is the only question. Some believe it has already happened.

But visits from Mars and galaxies beyond aside, our development and application of new technologies will greatly alter the core of who we are — physically, mentally, spiritually.

So where will books be in a decade? A century? A millennia?

Books are beautiful but they may not be with us at some point. Why do I say this?

Well, historically, almost all inventions come and go. Some have a good run, like the knife, fire, or bed sheets, but many come and go and become obsolete in a relatively short window of time.  

The book, for it to become no more or simply a rarer thing, could be from one of these events:

** Some type of computer processor is embedded into our brains that renders the need to read books useless.

** Our digital capacities get destroyed, and those who rely on reading books from a device will be screwed.

** Wars or fires destroy libraries and bookstores or data centers. 

** Some disease or chemical warfare destroys our cognitive ability to read books.

** A new invention simply makes the reading of books not necessary.

** Behavioral patterns and societal change could simply shun the book for other forms of entertainment, such as television, and other ways to consume content, such as audiobooks.

** More people will choose to get book summaries and read just a few pages in order to get the distilled ideas of a 240-page non-fiction book.

** The world falls to a dictator who bans the creation and distribution of books. 

Perhaps the biggest challenge to books is not whether we will have them or how we will consume them, but rather, who will pen them and how they will be edited. The era of AI-assisted book writing is upon us. How long before the majority of books are printed without a trace of human involvement? 

The book world keeps evolving.  

We went from only hardcover books with no images. Then we got illustrated texts and later with photographs. We expanded to trade paperbacks and mass market books. Then books on records, eight tracks and audiotape cassette. Then came CD-Roms and e-books. Then streaming audio.  

There is always talk of having blended digital content that incorporates video, maybe 3D, and audio, but it has not taken off.  

The future is to have books consumed through osmosis. Maybe you pop a pill and literally digest a book. Maybe we get bionic eyes to read way faster than ever before. Perhaps we get a microchip yo expand our brain’s capacity to absorb, analyze, and act on tremendous amounts of data and content.  

As I said, I am not a futurist — nor a scientist, doctor, or technologist — but I fully expect and fear that one day beyond my lifetime we will have a Frankenstein-type hybrid human — half -machine and chemical substances, half-natural and biological.   

The end of humanity and of the book may be on a parallel track.

 

Do You Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator! 

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 5,250,000 page views. With 5,400+ posts over the past 14 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs  by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2025.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum