This new way of reading and storing books is obviously impacting the traditional book industry enormously and in more ways than one. I'm sure avid readers like me are wondering how this affects the traditional book and what is to become of it. I expect that the demand for hard copies will decline eventually. More and more people will buy into the convenience of the Kindle or the iPad. This eBook phenomenon is changing the world of books. Apparently, eBooks don't have such a bad effect on the publishing and the printing industry. Publishers are now willing to take a chance on writers they wouldn't normally take a chance on because the cost of printing will go down as a result of people buying less and less hard copy books. Moreover I think that the reading material that is mostly sold in the digital format is recreational or periodical for now: beach-reading books (which is in fact the most common depiction in eBook commercials), weekly newspapers and magazines; all in all, mostly books or periodicals that are a hassle to travel with all the time, especially when you have a lot of them. The eBook will certainly have a great effect on the book industry particularly because the cost of a digital copy of a book is up to 30% cheaper than that of a hard copy, and that the eBook is utterly convenient. While I still think that the book industry as we know it will radically change with the appearance of the digital book, I still believe that it will take some time before hard copies cease to exist, if they ever. My hope is that books will not die away in my lifetime because I’m not able to let go of my dream of having a very extensive, insightful and erudite library. And I’m pretty sure a lot of us don’t want them to. So no, this is not the end of books I hope, for now.
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ReplyDeleteI personally think that the cost of printing will go up: simple offer and demand balance.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I hope books keep on being published. I am pretty sure they will, and for a long time. Computers and word processors have not killed the pen/pencil-paper paradigm, have they? Who would have thought that we would see a resurgence of the vinyl LP or reel-to-reel tapes in the digital kingdom and commercial supremacy of the iPod?
No, it's not the end of books. I am pretty sure.