NPR did a story today called "End Of Days For Bookstores? Not If They Can Help It" about how Amazon and the eBook world are affecting the industry and what the future is both for the chain bookstores and for the independents. There was another very long story in the Boston Review called "Books After Amazon" on essentially the same topic. And if I've read these two articles, I've read a hundred more over the past year or two.  If you've been paying attention the industry at all, you know it is in major flux.  eBooks are on the rise, the big chain bookstores are struggling, Amazon is fighting with publishers over price issues, self-publishing seems to be on the rise and eReaders are the new hot thing. And everyone - literally everyone in the industry is weighing in.  But no one really seems to know how this is all going to play out.  And how could they?  No one has a crystal ball.  They are all just watching the trends and trying their best to stay up to date and offer their readers and customers the right things. So all of this got me thinking... how do I want this all to turn out?  And how do YOU want it all to turn out?  If I could create the perfect future for books and bookselling from a reader's perspective, what would it be?

Holly McQueen --- author of FABULOUSLY FASHIONABLE