posted Sep 8, 2010, 11:05 AM by Sarah Glazer
The migration of books to electronic screens has been accelerating
with the introduction of mobile reading on Kindles, iPhones and Sony
Readers and the growing power of Google's Book Search engine. Even the
book's form is mutating as innovators experiment with adding video,
sound and computer graphics to text. Some fear a loss of literary
writing and reading, others of the world's storehouse of knowledge if it
all goes digital. A recent settlement among Google, authors and
publishers would make more out-of-print books accessible online, but
some worry about putting such a vast trove of literature into the hands
of a private company. So far, barely 1 percent of books sold in the
United States are electronic. Still, the economically strapped
publishing industry is under pressure to do more marketing and
publishing online as younger, screen-oriented readers replace today's
core buyers -- middle-aged women.
CQ Researcher Future of Books v.19-20 |
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