Michael Healy, David J. Pecker Visiting Professor for NY’s Pace University Masters in Science in Publishing Program, touched on topics relating to the NY-based Book Rights Registry (BRR) and focused on the digital future of book publishing in an invitation-only lecture at the Midtown Executive Club Monday.  

As BRR executive director, Healy will represent the interests of rights holders whose works are covered by the Google Book Settlement, locate rights holders to enable their participation in the Settlement’s benefits, and administer payments due to them from Google. He will also oversee the database organization for all the works digitized as part of the Program, which currently includes more than seven million books. The BRR will be backed by $34 million start-up funding from Google.

“In a very short time, we will find out if what was crafted will survive the scrutiny” of the judicial system, Healy said speaking of the settlement.  No matter what happens, he said, the world will look back at Google’s achievement in digitizing 12 million out of print books as one of the “defining moments in how out-of-print books are accessed.” Also, he said, it will be difficult to turn back. While we will be debating the benefits and shortcomings of the settlement for a very long time, he said, “It’s difficult to see the circumstances in which those books will return to the conditions of obscurity they were in previously.” Google, he added, is committed to the book project.

Addressing the established NY-area book publishing industry, Healy said that an upheaval is on the horizon. Annual sales of $300 million books achieved in less than three years is just the starting point in an industry that will face increased disruption. “E-books today are simple digital facsimiles of traditional books,” he said, but the larger threat is a change in the way readers consume information. Many read on small format devices like cell phones.  Adults are reading fewer long form books. Publishers need to adjust their business models to accommodate these changes, he said.  

Specifically, Healy envisions a world where publishers act as thought leaders of vertically organized expert communities. They will also be content providers who create interactive digital media and provide it in a number of ways, including the rental and subscription financial models. In some sectors of the industry , books in the longer term as we know them will only survive as an artifact, like vinyl records, he said. “It’s difficult to see the role of traditional book sellers in this new world,” he said.  Instead, book publishers will increasingly provide content directly from their websites and have partnerships with device makers and content service providers.