E-book in the Digital Era: Will the best sellers the end of the entry into force?

Kindle and Nook to the left, 2Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Two years? Three years? In five years? It is a parlor game publishing circles to speculate how long does it take to receive the e-books make up the majority of the industry's sales in the United States. But the tipping point aside, no one suspects, that is, if the title is on the market. Amazon, the industry leader, already sells three times so many Kindle e-books than hardcovers. The sellers are not far behind. Last week, the Association of American Publishers announced that the e-book sales for the month of January would have had for the first time in the hardcovers. Paperbacks remain the lead now.

E-books are clearly in the otherwise sluggish, recession that plagued the business publication of the fastest growing segment. E-books, sales jumped 2010 164%, 441 million dollars. "The acceleration was rapid and dramatic, and in some ways the uptake may be faster, if the physical books on olive oils, such as borders shops, will be lost faster than expected," says Michael Cader, founder and editor of trade e-newsletter publishers lunch. (See time-the story of a huge e-readers.)

When the edges, the second largest book chain in the country, has been declared bankrupt, last month, the question has arisen, whether the popularity of the e-books had caused the author. Although experts say it was the only part of the Ann Arbor, Mich. based on the cause of the collapse in the chain, its poor showing in the arena of the e-book retailing powerhouse certainly accelerate the drop of the former. "They received it," says Publishers Weekly business editor Jim Milliot. "They were on the way to the late game. Only began to develop a digital strategy for the last year. "

Michael Norris, Simba, the top edges of the main features of trade issues, according to the United States Census Bureau, it was found that the chain is sold to a staggering seven types of e-readers, which is confused with the consumers. Another problem was that for years the borders do not maintain your own Web site rather than to sell through Amazon. In contrast, competitor Barnes and Noble sells their own popular e-reader, the Nook, and for a long time to maintain a B & N.com, vibrant store, which has seen its e-book sales take off characteristics. Both chains are still light years behind the Amazon, Kindle, market by far the Best-selling e-reader of the creator. (See how Barnes & Noble to avoid the fate of the edges.)

The growing popularity of E-books, they constitute a challenge for publishers. The industry still makes more than 90% of its revenue from print. This means that the large publishers such as Random House has been maintained, while at the same time, there will be an increase in activity in the printing of the digital side. "The Trick is not to draw attention to the fact that digital is not profitable," says Cader. "The current level makes some Digital or any of the cost of the printing business to go away." This means that the large stocks, broad sales forces and a wide range of systems. Hope in time, that is, of course, digital is cheaper to manufacture, but at this time the publishers face high costs for digital conversion. In addition, the publication is always to have been based on economies of scale and the amount of the reduction in the output of the paper is becoming more expensive. "When people catch the e-book reading a program error, they quickly take on epizootic proportions, causing a large portion of a day, 7 days a week, they read digital books," James McQuivey, Forrester, media technology, SR. analyst, wrote in the November report.

So the printing of books going to disappear? This is not in the cards — at least not yet, say the experts. "The shapes to which a lot of people has been often take longer time to go away," says Cader. He compares the music publishing business, which has fallen considerably in CD sales, but is not finished. And the books were around long before the CD. In addition, certain genres are not practical as e-books. "It is not a good idea yet mobile digital cookbooks, books about books and textbooks," says McQuivey.

Publishers Weekly: n Milliot agrees that the printing of books still exist, despite the popularity of all digital. The fact that the consumer can subscribe to and download the book immediately, he believes, is enough to make print books are lost. "Some just like the books, their House is," he says. "Basically, if you want to read the book, print, the book is still quite a lot."

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