Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Books Go Digital

In an interesting article on cnn.com . . .

Sick of lugging hefty books with you on vacation? Portable, electronic readers -- with their easy-on-the-eyes displays and ability to carry hundreds of titles without gaining weight -- started to make inroads on their hardback cousins in 2009.

E-book sales brought in $13.9 million in revenue in the third quarter of last year, according to International Digital Publishing Forum, a trade organization. The same time period this year saw $46.5 million in e-book revenue -- a 235 percent spike.

The Amazon Kindle, originally released in November 2007, found some competition this year with the release of the Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble's Nook. Meanwhile, libraries, authors, publishers and Google continued to haggle out the details of a settlement that could give the Internet giant permission to create the world's largest library -- online only.


So, obviously, EBooks are kicking butt and yet, some publishers are choosing to delay EBook releases, rather than simultaneously release the hardback and eback (sorry, couldn't resist that one!). Hmmmm, have they checked out the above article?? Perhaps they should. I'm just saying . . .

S

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm not a huge fan of the ebook...sigh... I despise the day when they take over!

Scott said...

I love my Kindle. I also love regular books. At this point, books in a series that I already have I'll keep buying the new ones in hardback. I also love when they use neat paper on hardbacks, and I'll still buy those. The ebook thingy is all about convenience, especially when travelling. I'm also not getting ebooks of my current regular books, so my shelves will still be overflowing!

Elana Johnson said...

I'm not opposed to books in e-format. I don't read them that way, though, and I do think it's smart to keep the traditional published book as the only way to read the book for a few weeks/months. THEN release in a different format, so I think the publishers have it right.

Heather said...

I'm with you, Scott. I asked for a Kindle for Christmas, and if I get one (which, let's face it, is totally unlikely) I'll still get my series in hardcover and frequent used book sales. I just think the convenience would be nice, plus I could read in bed without bothering my husband. At my heart, though, I'm a lover of the smell and feel of a "real" book. But I think it's stupid of publishers to hold off on e-book publication. Chances are you're going to get people scanning them in and trying to download books illegally or something. I don't know, holding back on digital didn't work for the music industry, and I don't think it will work for publishing, either (no matter how sad I'll be if my book goes straight to e).

Scott said...

Elana - I think the theory behind the delay from hardback to eback (love that word, btw), is that 'oh, the consumer will still buy the hardback'! Well, not in my case. I'm perfectly content to a) wait for the eback or b) borrow a friend's hardback. : )

Heather - I love the feel/smell of books, and have bought more than one book just because of the texture of the paper. I'll still buy certain books because of that, but the majority of my books are in e format because of the convenience. I agree with you that publishers, as with the music industry, will be forced at some point to release the hardbacks/ebacks at the same time due to demand. As for my own book . . . well, as long as I'm published! Yes, I'd love a hardback version of it, but if a major publisher wants to eback my book, who am I to say 'heck no!!'??