Some say that the future of the publishing
industry lies in eBooks and electronic reading
devices. I’ve heard this mantra constantly in
the twelve or so years that I’ve been involved
with writers and publishers but it seemed to
be a misty vision of the world of tomorrow.
Suddenly the movement appears to be picking
up steam.
As I see it, the problem was that none of the
e-readers were able to take the lead and capture
a big enough following. The formats were all
proprietary, severely limiting the available
books and authors.
And then Amazon stepped forward. With its huge
customer base and its reputation as the leading
internet bookseller it was only natural that
they could develop a format and then provide
easy conversion to the Kindle,
Amazon’s e-reader. With the huge inventory of
titles available through Amazon, success quickly
followed. The Kindle became the best selling
e-reader and the market for eBooks grew proportionately.
And then Apple joined the fray. The iPad
is compatible with the Kindle format and brings
a huge Apple-addicted following along with it.
In the short time that the iPad has been on
the market, significant growth has been noted
in eBook sales.
It’s difficult to nail down accurate statistics
on just how quickly the industry is changing.
Amazon claims unprecedented gains but their
numbers are disputed by the print media. Still,
nobody denies that the market is changing.
I’m sure that there will always be a market
for books that you can hold in your hand and
turn the pages. And nothing can compare with
the author’s signature in the flyleaf. But the
balance has begun to swing, the reading public
is now a generation of people who find reading
on a screen perfectly natural.
I’m an old timer and I never thought that I’d
see an electronic reader in my future but as
a book reviewer, it looks like I’d better join
the crowd. In the meantime I think I’ll buy
some stock in Eveready.
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