ebook v pbook: a false war

And article of mine on this perennial issue.

Joseph Harris

http://fray.slate.com/discuss/forums/2590036/ShowThread.aspx?ArticleID=2214243#2590036

ebook v pbook: a false war

Proponents of the various publishing camps have all the fervour of Jehova's Witnesses on the doorstep. But, just as there are many routes to God, so there are many ways to read. 

 Indeed there is even room for the literary atheists and agnostics!

Of course most reading matter is not books in any traditional sense, and a great deal of that being of an ephemeral nature anyway, translates easily to the screen. But even the novel, in some past forms, had the serial formula which is common in effect to the magazine and to  the web page.

Yet that example too limits the terms of the debate. For a book is in essence merely the collection of a story or an instruction or a collection of photograhs or drawings or some other presentation into a single offering.

It may even be argued that the digital age has in fact allowed an explosion of the print book. In the US there were some 80,000 paper books published in 2002, in 2006 somewhere over 400,000 such titles.

The economic downturn is affecting the paper publishing industries, just as it is affecting everything else. And comparisons of numbers will depend on where you set the bar - 2006? 1996? 1970? 1945?  1935?  All economically very different times and different periods in development in technology.

Will screen reading increase? Of course. Will actual numbers of print books sold trend downwards over the long term? Perhaps. Will the number of titles in print expand vigorously? You betcha!

Which leaves the real question that is going to determine the balance between paper and screen page. Which future economic model will offer sufficient reward?

But that leads us to the future of copyright, and this is not what this article is about.

 Joseph Harris - S P Publications

Joseph Harris  -  Debt Control Man
author: Control Your Debt Crisis on Your Own Terms
blog: http://debtcontrolman.wordpress.com
site: http://www.controlyourdebtcrisis.co.uk
wiki: http://www.controlyourdebtcrisis.co.uk/debtwiki/
ezine: debtcrisisnews-subscribe-81qHHgoATdGiZAWpSjG6+Rq5H0TW4eMuLld22O+yBnhaa/[email protected]

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