E-Book Report

If you read e-books, are looking to buy an e-book reader, or are an author who publishes in e-book form or are thinking about it, you’ll want to read the NY Times article called “Turning Page, E-Books Start to Take Hold.” Brad Stone and Motoko Rich with the Times seem to think the tide may be on the side of the e-book readers. According to them, 2008 may be known as the year, “the e-book has started to take hold.”

Both Sony’s reader and Amazon’s seem to be coming on strong in sales -- with both men and women. And e-book readers are especially “popular among 55- to 64-year -olds.”

Now, granted, publishers say sales of e-books for any of the many devices “constitute less than 1 percent of total book sales.” But they say the momentum is building. More readers are buying the devices and more big name authors are willing to be published in this form. Plus, devices not intended to be e-readers are now being used that way, such as the iPhone. E-book reading programs are being created for the iPhone.

Sony and Amazon both will be putting out upgraded versions of their readers. Plastic Logic expects to begin testing next year on their flexible reading device and selling it in 2010. Other companies, such as Polyner Vision has demonstrated a device “the size of a BlackBerry that has a five-inch rolled-up screen that can be unfurled for reading.”

For the full story, you can read the article. While no one - yet - is calling this the end of the paper books, it does go to show that times are changing.