Over the past thirty-plus years, several developments have changed the publishing industry forever. (The first two occurred in 1995.)
Amazon.com
Dan Balow wrote an excellent piece on this in 2015. It still is quite astounding when you think about it. In 30 years, this little online startup (founded in 1995) became the most dominant online retailer in the Western world. Bookselling will never be the same.
Google.com
While Google officially did not begin until 1998 (the year they incorporated), it was in 1995 when Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google as a research project while Ph.D. students at Stanford University. The way we do research as writers has never been the same.
Wikipedia
It wasn’t until 2001 that Wikipedia was created. Can you believe it was that recent? The idea of a computer encyclopedia had been around for a while. In 1993, Microsoft tried to create one with its Encarta project (on CD-ROM at first). Encarta was finally discontinued in 2009. The combination of forces obliterated the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica’s print edition. (The last print edition came out in 2010.) Quick access to “encyclopedic” information has never been so easy. {While Wikipedia is a reasonably good starting place for a snapshot, remember not to have it as your sole source of research! Harvard University agrees.}
Microsoft Word
No matter what you think about its strengths or weaknesses, Microsoft Word is THE go-to software for editors and publishers. If you use any other writing software (Pages, Scrivener, Google Docs, etc.), you will have to convert your file into a Word document when you turn in the manuscript so the publisher can begin the editing process. I began using it in 1992 with version 2.0 (I still have the floppy discs that I used to load it on my first home computer) and have used it nearly every day since (which only makes me feel old).
[Speaking of “old,” do you remember transitioning from the mechanical or electric typewriter to a computer? I still recall the awe of being able to change typos without correction tape or Wite-out. And the ability to have the computer set footnotes at the bottom of a page without having to measure the pages while I typed.]
The Kindle
In November 2007, Amazon released an ebook reader, the Kindle, that changed bookselling forever. The first version cost $399 but sold out in less than six hours. (Using an inflation calculator, $399 in 2007 is equivalent to $623 in 2026. Today, you can buy a new Kindle for under $100. Or just use the Kindle app on your phone or tablet.) Very quickly, pundits declared print books were dead. Richard Curtis, a legendary literary agent, recently wrote about why those pundits were wrong. (His December 2025 article is found on Jane Friedman’s blog.)
Ebooks and audiobooks have become alternative delivery mechanisms for books. All have their advocates. All will continue to support the creation and reading of books for years to come.
Print on Demand (POD)
The technology to print one book at a time has been around since the 70s, but it didn’t enter the publishing mainstream until the late 90s. If the nomenclature is unfamiliar, it simply allows printing one copy of a book at a time rather than long print runs of thousands. If you need 20 books, for example, they can be shipped within a few days. Whereas a print run of 2,000 would have to be scheduled 6-8 weeks in advance.
I remember making a presentation to the executive management team at Bethany House Publishers in the late 90s about adopting POD for the company. Since it was still a fledgling technology, the issue of vendor (bookstore) returns was unsettled. The logistics were more complex than we were ready to address. Today, many publishers have adopted some form of POD to help manage inventory.
Both POD and the availability of ebooks make self-publishing a financially viable alternative for those who do not want to warehouse thousands of books. It also made older (backlist) books more economical to keep available in print. As one early adopter of POD stated, “Sell the book. Print the book.”
Next up? AI
None of us knows where the advent and growth of AI will lead. But it is here to stay. For good or ill, the genie cannot be stuffed back in the bottle. Check back in ten years, and my AI assistant will answer your questions. (!!!)
Why this trip down memory lane? To illustrate how things can change. Thirty years may seem like a long time, but in the scheme of things, it was just yesterday. So while it is hard to wait or hard to see the industry change before your eyes, it only means that something new is over the horizon. Those with long experience in the industry have seen many trends come and go. What has not changed, and never will, is the need for great content–hopefully it will be yours that is the next project to touch thousands of readers.
With all due respect, 9-11 had a profound influence.
Up until that day, New York City was the hub of publishing. Everyone wanted a NYC literary agent.
And then, on the heels of 9-11 came the anthrax scare. People were opening envelopes with a strange powder in them. (I think Tom Brokaw got one.)
That made people want to go digital with submissions to eliminate the possibility of getting anthrax powder.
Before 9-11, I was able to email the anthrax expert in Colorado and ask a question about it. I was working on a short story about a Roman legion being decimated by anthrax.
After 9-11, I was considerably more aware of Homeland Security and the bizarre questions I could ask online.
Enjoying your blog!
Liz,
Point taken. I was evidently unclear that this post was about technological innovations, not world events.
Other events that changed publishing beside 9/11 could include the Y2K hysteria of the end of the 20th century. The Left Behind series launched in 1995 and created a publishing phenomena unmatched to this day. It showed the secular world that Christians could publish bestselling books that sold in massive quantities.
Also, recession of 2008-2009 negatively affected Christian book publishing for the first time. Previously, the Christian book market was somewhat impervious to economic recessions.
Another world event was COVID which ultimately changed the communication mechanics from the telephone to zoom. And allowed editors and other members of a publishing team to be located outside the home office. It dramatically changed the hiring process by removing the need for relocation.
I could go on…
Steve, a question, if I may.
The restrictions on free speech in Europe and Australia, and the outright hatred of some points of view in the US, has led me to be very, very cautious on social media. Bland’s the word.
For example, I once suggested, in a blog post, that the push for electric vehicles was premature, that neither the technology nor the infrastructure could support a rapid changeover.
For this, I received death threats, so I stick to writing about unicorns eating cotton candy, these days. My body’s too feeble to fight off a determined toddler.
Has this trend toward intolerance of certain speech had an effect on publishing, either mainline or Christian, or both?
Andrew,
The written word has always been malleable. It shifts over time, with usage, and among culture. Compare the American Standard Version of the Bible (1901) with the New American Standard Version (first full Bible version published 1971). Then compare the NASB to the Living Bible, also first released as a full Bible paraphrase in 1971. It is rather dramatic.
All internet communication has allowed vitriolic responses without much consequence, and it’s relatively easy to do so anonymously by hiding behind a username. In addition, culture has become reactive instead of thoughtful. Post any opinion, including this one, and the critics become like flies on a carcass. One must be careful to “police” one’s speech. This has carried over into book publishing, with editors tasked with preserving an author’s clarity of message without creating speed bumps through clumsy phraseology.
Thus, to your point, social media is a result of technology. An invention that morphed into something their creators never saw coming.
When I took a typing class in high school (grad. of 1957), I never dreamed I’d be “typing” on a computer to produce books for POD, from both hybrid publishers and self-publishing. I’m thankful that I use Microsoft Word, even though the tech guys have me use Google Docs for podcast scripts. And AI? I’m not a fan, but that may show my age as well.
I’d suggest a 7th item: computer typesetting. It underlies most content that people read today. Most people take it for granted. It enables much of the above list.
The printing press moved publishing from individual hand copying to mass production. Computer typesetting moved quality mass publishing from people with big money for printing presses to anyone with a computing device.
Back in 1981, Donald E. Knuth and Michael F. Plass published a paper titled “Breaking Paragraphs into Lines.” It is THE algorithm for achieving the best word spacing, hyphenation, and line breaking of a paragraph of text. Most software implements a lower quality line by line word spacing for real-time WYSIWYG display in word processing, DTP, web browsers, and e-book readers.
Today, only Adobe InDesign and LaTeX implement the KP algorithm. The line by line algorithm is like fast food, relatively cheap, ubiquitous, and passable. The KP algorithm is like gourmet food reserved for special occasions. Sadly, most self-publishers and traditional publishers opt for the fast food even though using the KP algorithm usually reduces manual work load.
In the 90s, Herman Zapf wrote about using human perception for letter and word spacing as well as perceived straight edge justification. The human eye responds to the amount of ink (or pixels) in a character more than its boundaries. By allowing hyphens, punctuation, and serifs to extend slightly into margins, the human eye perceives a straighter and softer edge. This also produces more legible letter placement within words and spacing between words. As CPU capability has increased, more software is implementing aspects of Zapf’s ideas.
The combination of the KP algorithm and Zapf’s ideas allows anyone to produce high quality typeset documents if they use InDesign (with correctly selected options) or LaTeX (with microtype package). This is state of the art if the goal is to print the most legible and pleasing books possible. For most readers, this shows up as more comfort and ease when reading for a long time. Sort of like sitting in an okay chair with mediocre lighting to read versus sitting in an overstuffed comfy chair with excellent lighting to read. Most readers are only subconsciously aware of it, unable to explain why high quality books are more legible and comfortable read than others.
Changing from a typewriter to a computer made me skeptical. I approached the computer as if it would electrocute me. I felt I was no longer in control and if I hit the wrong key, I’d lose everything. Hmm, probably would have. Now I’m telling my age. Microsoft Word is my go-to. Computers aren’t so scary anymore, but the way scammers infiltrate them is disturbing.
My first two children’s books released through Concordia in August 2001. A month before 9-11. Everything shut down, as we know. There was no real author websites (at least not for newbies like me), no social media, most of us never heard of Amazon, no blogs, no podcasts, etc. And they printed 10,000 of each book.
The books were listed in Concordia’s catalog.
I hosted tea parties at churches, schools, book stores, and libraries.
I went to vendor/craft shows.
And by the time they went out of print, each book sold almost half of each. Almost 5,000 of each. Without anything we’re told is necessary to sell books today.
And 25 years later, I have at least one adult ask me when they meet me at a vendor show if there are anymore Beatrice books coming out. They remember them from when they were young, their children love them now, and they want more.
I’ve been published since those first two books, but I’ve never sold the amount I did without “new” technology.
Back in typewriter days, I typed long contracts. When only one paragraph changed, we cut with scissors, pasted with tape and photocopied … it rarely looked perfect. We were overjoyed when our employer purchased 64K computers with WordStar.
I see another significant shift in the publishing industry… that of marketing and advertising when it comes to books.
When things were stuck with big name publishers as the gatekeepers, there was no such thing for the author. Now, authors are expected to not only be aware of book marketing and advertising trends, but to leverage them “successfully.” The entire author life has radically changed as a result and it can become overwhelming at times. The author has become the production, sales, and fulfillment arms of a small business.