A slow death
A while ago I reported on the rise of the e-book. According to Amazon, digital books are now outselling paperback books on the Amazon.com website, and this is not just for books where there is an alternative e-book option.
With all the Kindles and iPads being sold, it is not surprising that owners of these and similar devices are switching to e-books.
The availability of free downloads from public libraries like own provides access to the latest books, whilst free to download out-of-copyright books also gives readers the chance to get hold of a vast range of ’classics’ at no risk and no cost.
As more devices are sold, it would not be unreasonable to predict that still fewer books will be sold. Last year, the Borders chain of bookshops closed, and now Borders in the USA is having financial problems. Waterstones suffered poor trading over the Christmas period. The current economic model is unsustainable.
A new model will appear… certainly e-books, e-magazines and other digital publications will become the predominant medium. Maybe the slow demise of the large booksellers heralds the the even slow but eventual death of the mass produced printed book?
I’m 38 and have grown up through all sorts of technology hype. Remember the BBC computer? How many PTAs must have flogged their guts out to raise money because their school must have one. In the land of VHS we all laughed at Beta Max. I took a video recorder to the dump yesterday. Perfect working order, just completely obsolete.
So, we’ve all to take all our books to the dump now have we?
The internet shop says that Ebooks are best. Think about it!
Happy to put money on you being wrong this time. Or will ‘Prolefeed’ finally take over? That’s a book reference…
Webteam replies
I am not saying that printed books won’t survive, but that they will become a relatively small component in the consumption of the written word.
This new phenomenon must surely go on to include the magazines on our high street shelves (‘e-mags’ anyone?).
Books and magazines published electronically, will inevitably reduce the need for printing capacity locally, nationally and internationally. The price of the remaining ‘hard copy’ publications will inevitably rise, due to ‘economies of scale’. Higher prices for those publications will lead to reduced sales and so you have a vicious circle (including; no printing = less need for pulp, so what price forests – maybe that’s a good thing though?).
Webteam replies
As well as computer publications, many of the national newspapers and magazines already have electronic versions… the Times, the Economist to name but two.