
I fear the day when having a bookshelf seems pointless and if you have one, younger generations will take one look at it and wonder what in the heck I was thinking when I purchased all of those big space taking items shelves and filled them with things called books.
Looking into my crystal ball, I see consolidation continuing. The big publishing houses will continue to add smaller houses under their umbrella. I also think that they will add e-book publishers under their umbrella too. Why wouldn't they? If e-books completely take off and become the most wanted literary format, these companies will want to snatch up any of the major e-book publishers. A flutter in my glass ball suggests that big publishing houses will be bundling e-books with paperback books. Bundles will keep both the traditional book format and the e-book together in order to make money--hopefully big money.
Hopefully in ten years e-books will be a little more permanent and the fear of buying something that you'll lose within so many days, months, or years won't be an issue for e-book buyers who want their money and their purchase to last.
Or...e-book publishers will gain control and will buy print book publishers in order to have more control over the rights...I won't go into this because this isn't an area that I know very much about and my crystal ball is becoming very foggy.
These are the predictions that I can make at this time. For a few dollars more I may be able to answer some other, less unpredictable questions.