Adapting to the Digital Age: A Q&A with Association of American Publishers President and CEO Patricia S. Schroeder

Extra: How have publishers responded to these efforts?
Schroeder: One of the things that has amazed and pleased me to no end is that we get a phenomenal participation from our board. We have a board of directors of 20 members from all of the major publishers. They have rolled up their shirt sleeves and have been up to their eyeballs in all of this. I think it’s because they realize that they’re making decisions on these cases that are make it or break it for the future of the industry. None of them could do this on their own. … [Their support has] been unanimous on all of these issues. It’s amazing.

Extra: What is your take on how the Internet and digital distribution will ultimately change the industry? Does this open new challenges for the AAP?
Schroeder: I’m sure there will be [new challenges]. My crystal ball isn’t clear enough to see [the future]. It’s a very exciting time. Clearly, there will be paper books. People are going to want to read a lot of books on paper. You’re going to find more and more creative uses for electronic books, too, at the same time. That’s going to be very interesting to see how that all plays out. I see it in travel books. People are going to want to have a couple chapters of [this], and a couple chapters of that. People will put together their own digitally delivered travel book, but they may want to read their novel in print. A lot of publishers will be selling this stuff in a lot of different ways. It may be through book stores or through Amazon.com. Who knows? The more choices and the more accessibility, the better. That seems to be the way we’re heading. We’re not quite sure.