Go by the e-Book

E-book,the downloadable format of any text,is read on portable tablet computers such as iPad,or dedicated e-book readers such as Kindle,Nook or Kobo. Hundreds of tomes can fit into the digital bookshelves of a tablet or an e-reader,so one can sift through Jean-Paul Sartre,Tintin or Fifty Shades of Grey among others any time of the day and at any place. “No more lugging around books on the metro,” says Ruchi Pushkarna,a 26-year-old dance instructor.

E-books were introduced in India around two years ago,and many readers are wondering if the era of physical books is drawing to a close. E-books,a popular concept in the West,has found supporters among young,tech-savvy bibliophiles in India. Vikram Khosla of Hookedonbook.com,an online library,says that in the US,more than one-fifth of the population read e-books last year. “I think,we will soon see a similar trend here,” he adds. The recent Delhi Book Fair had e-books as its main theme,with online publishers and publications,programmes and applications participating from all over the world.

Most major publishing houses in India are releasing or planning to release e-book versions of their titles. Kapil Kapoor,Director,Sales and Marketing,Roli Books,says,“The e-book market is nascent in India,but we have started publishing every new title as an e-book from last year.” Caroline Newbury,VP,marketing and publicity,Random House India,adds that though the e-books sales are small,the publishing house has found that they are complementing,rather than detracting,from printed book sales. Another publisher,Ananth Padmanabhan,VP,Sales,Penguin India,estimates that in the next three years,e-book sales will grow to “15 per cent of physical book sales”.

The business of e-books is not as simple as downloading free reading material off the Net. “The first job for any e-book publisher is to ensure that the copy is secure. Though piracy is rampant,both in physical books as well as soft copies,e-books are more vulnerable,” says Padmanabhan.

The rising popularity of e-books inevitably raises sighs of nostalgia — can anything replace the joys of curling up with a paperback or a hardcover volume — and sarcasm — doesn’t the concept of coffee and an e-book sound absolutely romantic? But,Tanya Menon,20,a student of Delhi University,has a point when she says,“I need scores of new books every semester,and it is impossible for me to carry them around.”

Thomas Abraham,MD,Hachette India,agrees. “If you get past the tactile-olfactory experience of paper,an e-book benefits the older generation as well. You can carry multiple books in a slim device,you can magnify the text and,with linked-in browsers devices,you can look up the references right there,” he says. Padmanabhan says that out-of-print books,works by little-known authors and commercial fiction are the popular categories in e-book sales.