eBook Thoughts

Publishing Trends has its new survey out. Again I am mildly depressed by it (cutbacks made worse by this year's economy, job insecurity, a sense of fewer readers and the imminent End of Publishing as We Know it), but not terribly surprised. One thing that inspires neither of those feelings in me, though, is the revelation that only about 30% of respondents had ever read an e-book. Joe Wikert finds this fact not only stunning but disturbing. My feelings are more mixed. On the one hand the figures seem to indicate a dangerous unconcern for this new medium, a cavalier attitude towards something that is supposed to revolutionize the industry. Wikert mentions having an eReader as something that has sparked ideas he'd never have had without one, and it's certainly important for publishing folk to make eBooks and the different opportunities they allow a considered part of a general effort to help books reach as many people as possible. On the other hand, this change has been on the horizon for years, and there are still many legitimate reasosn for supposing that eBooks won't be overtaking everything any time soon. Really, if you can't get the bookiest of book people interested in a palm-sized library, something is still quite wrong. Obviously part of this can be ascribed to the reverence these people have the the book itself as a sort of fetish object, and possibly to the "hubris" that Wikert mentions--though the rest of the survey indicates more fear and disappointment than deadly pride. I don't think publishers are entirely wrong in suposing the general reading population shares special affection for, or at least comfort with, books as physical objects, either. I haven't read much market research on people who read eBooks, and I don't know that much exists. I think there was a Times article a while ago mentioning the popularity of sci-fi books and, surprisingly, romance novels as eBooks. But while certain populations may be eager to take in their books in this admittedly efficient way, and while people in general may be getting more and more used to the digital medium, I'm not convinced that all or most of publishing will need to convert anytime soon. My thoughts tend to go in all sorts of directions on this topic, and I'm anxious to see where it goes. One thing is clear, though: with the economy as it is, and with publishing salaries as humble as this survey indicates, I doubt that uninitiated 70% will be coming around very soon.