In an article about the Sony Reader entitled
A Hundred Books in Your Pocket,
Wall Street Journal writer Terry Teachout sees a bright future for e-books despite a rocky past.
So will it fly? I don't know. Still, I'm certain that something like the Sony Reader will catch on, if not this year then in a short time. The phenomenal success of the iPod strongly suggests that many, perhaps most, consumers are ready to start buying digital books on the Web and storing and reading them electronically.
E-books could also change the way we read, and more importantly, how books are published as lesser known and "Long Tail" niche-market authors self-publish, disrupting the entire publishing industry. With the lower barriers to entry and self-publishing opportunities that e-books provide, lesser known authors can build a fan base and get "discovered" just as
EarthCore and Ancestor author Scott Sigler has done with his podcast novels.
Many of these differences will arise from the way in which the e-book encourages self-publishing. Best-selling novelists, for instance, will soon be in a position to "publish" their own books, pocketing all the profits -- but so will niche-market authors whose books don't sell in large enough quantities to interest major publishers.
Are we now in the early stages of an "E-Reading 2.0" era as new e-book readers are about to hit the shelves, publishers are jumping onboard, and newspapers are experimenting with using them for digital distribution? Has the industry learned from the past, and is the mass market now ready to give e-books a second chance?
Read the full article
here.
Related: CEO of a top 10 book publisher writes about e-books, De Tijd and iRex to launch digital paper delivery service