CJ Montague, who works in publishing, considers the impact of e-books on the industry
The advantages of an e-book or e-reader in comparison to the physical book are obvious, numerous and hard to discredit.
Portability, flexibility, ease of usability; all of the features of the e-book combine to condense the reading experience by doing what the printed page cannot.
It enables us to have the instantaneous experience that we have come to expect from our products. Highlight a word and you can look it up there and then.
Share your reading to your social networks through Kobo and Amazon's sharing facilities or social reading sites such as Anobii, which is a nice change from sharing what you just ate for lunch or that YouTube clip your colleague just emailed to you.
As publishers we are working to enhance the experience by being pioneering in digital format; developing enhanced e-books or apps to accompany books. I work with children's books and the accessory app to a Paddington picture book, for example, is a simple way to hook "digital natives" (that cynical term for youngsters learning i is for ipad in their abc) into connecting with your character or brand.
The rise of digital allows for branding and marketing to reach the youngest corners of the book-buying public, be they physical or digital.
Brand association is a large part of the digital emphasis and WH Smith have been smart to align themselves with Kobo. By drawing people into their stores to buy a reader they no doubt hope to solicit physical sales in store. If their customers are anything like me however a trip to a bookstore is sadly the best opportunity to browse the stacks and shape a wishlist for my Kindle. How many of their customers will do the same for their new Kobo?
This shift in buying behaviour is the biggest challenge. It is anticipated that highstreet bookstores will become ancillary to our business, not core, as book purchases are increasingly made online.
The experience of browsing bookshelves is difficult to replicate in an e-book store but whether it is buying the physical book online at a cut-rate price or buying an e-book direct from your device, this shift goes against how traditional publishers make a living and it is that which is difficult to make provision for.
We have been able to benefit from the mistakes of the music industry: e-books are encrypted to be more secure and avoid piracy (a huge issue for our authors) and pricing is often in line with the paperback version of the physical book.
The assumption to be challenged is that electronic means it is worth less than a physical counterpart. That the digital book can be an enhanced e-book, potentially featuring commentaries from the author or preview chapters from the next book only enhances its value.
You are not only paying for the convenience of having the book immediately into your pocket, you're being rewarded with interactive content and new features.
Books in any new form make reading more easily accessible, which ultimately will mean more books are sold. The so-called digital natives may never be convinced on the physical book but on those days when you’ve forgotten to charge your e-reader or you are caught out without an umbrella, perhaps then we'll lament the demise of the humble paperback.
In the meantime, publishers as a whole are embracing the change while attempting to predict the future of our industry, whatever form that may take.
CJ Montague works in foreign rights sales at HarperCollins Publishers and is a freelance copywriter and blogger
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