Why the situation is ripe for e-books

[Alexander Turcic]

Michael Mace not only has profound insight in the mobile tech industry, but he is also a talented writer. In his latest editorial Mike systematically analyzes why e-books, although so far they have been a failure in the consumer market, are ready to pick up steam. Some issues he raises:

• inefficiency in the traditional publishing industry
• lack of (financial) incentives for authors to write more books
• high price of e-books
• few new e-books are published per year
• consolidation among book retailers drains profits from independent bookstores
• decline of the short story market
• books going out of print
• insufficiency of e-book devices (contrast ratio, screen resolution)
• book piracy.

My favorite quote:

So most of the value added by publishers is logistical - they manage the complicated production process, get the book placed in stores, handle returns, and so on. If the printing and bookselling process is bypassed, the value-add of most publishers goes away. And so, perhaps, does the publisher.

[TadW]

I cannot agree more, in particular on the quote that the need for publishers is so yesterday.