Re: "The Elusive E-book"

From: "Robert Harris"
> "In the 12 years I've been researching electroic publishing, a 
> lot of
> predictions have been made.  Had the pundits been correct, half 
> of the
> reading material today would be delivered electronically.  In 
> spite of these
> rosy predictions, individual e-book sales in 2005 were a mere 
> $11.8
> million.  By comparison, this is about one-tenth the 
> pre-publication sales
> of the final Harry Potter book."
>
> Sottong, Stephen.  (2008).  "The elusive e-book: are e-books 
> finally ready
> for prime time?"  =American Libraries=, 39:5, pp. 44-48.
>
> OK, a lot of figures pale next to the juggernaut that is Harry 
> Potter.
> Still, this juxtaposition is a tad jarring.  The author 
> concentrates his
> critique on the price of the e-book reader -- SONY and 
> Amazon -- and the
> relative display (resolution) compared to that of a traditional 
> book.  He
> concludes that e-books are not ready for prime time but 
> comprise a "future
> dream."
>
> The article is not available online but can be read on, y'know, 
> paper.  In
> your library.
>
> Robert "Still happy with his Gemstar" Harris
>
> -- 
> Robert Alan Harris
> [email protected]


Ah yes, the old 'Lies, damned lies - and statistics' [Benjamin 
Disraeli, C19 British Prime Minister].   The 2005 figures are 
pretty irrelevant if the Kindle is in the comparison.  But also 
irrelevant because of the rapid expansion both of the net itself 
and of outlets - paticularly social outlets - since the figures.

The moves of big publishers into POD and online activity should 
indicate that the ebook market is growing to a financially 
interesting level.

Joseph Harris 


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