Opinion An e-book for Christmas?

Barnes and Noble sells three times as many digital books as all formats of the physical version. Amazon,the big daddy of them all,sells 242 e-books for every 100 hardbacks. Those figures,of course,relate to the developed world,where technology has taken deeper roots,but even so gadgets like Kindle and tablet devices are becoming popular in countries like India and starting to make inroads into the world of traditional publishing. Today’s reader is increasingly lured by gadgetry and convenience. The other attraction is that prices of gadgets like Kindle Fire are less than Rs 20,000.

So,is the tactile pleasure of sitting out in the winter sun or in front of a roaring fire,cradling a printed book headed to the realm of memory? There are some signs that the pleasurable stroll down the aisles of your favourite bookstore may not be ending any time soon. Most analysts believe that the rise in sales of e-books and the downward graph for the print version have to do with a combination of global recession,which has slashed consumer spending,and demographic changes that are hitting book sales in the US and Britain,the two largest markets for English language publishers. Last year,book sales by volume dropped 8 per cent in the US while in Britain the drop was 5 per cent. Nielsen BookScan says the decline in sales of printed books in 2011 was “only partially” due to the switch to e-books. Barnes and Noble,while selling more e-versions of books than paperback and hardback combined,also,significantly,says sales of print books are still increasing,albeit much slower than earlier. Moreover,publishers are increasingly focusing on markets like India,China and South Africa where book sales have been on the rise. India,the world’s third largest English language book market,has been growing at about 10 per cent per annum for some years.

Yet,it is a fact that readers prefer to get their books cheaper. As we have seen in the music industry where digital has become the norm rather than the exception,this would lead to the mainstream market shrinking. Artists are no longer paid humungous sums of money by record companies but have switched to a profit-sharing formula based on record sales. Ewan Morrison sees a parallel in publishing,arguing that author advances have collapsed. “With the era of digital publishing and digital distribution,the age of author advances is coming to an end,” he says.

The retail sector is worried. In the past year,publishers have lost major outlets in the UK like Borders and British Bookshops. There is also a blurring of lines between the book industry and giants like Amazon which is both retailer and,as owner of Kindle,increasingly a publisher. This is creating enormous uncertainty.

It’s like the Christmas presents the brothers received. One a solid book that,after reading,will be displayed on a bookshelf,in itself a statement of who you are defined by what you read. The other a gadget lost among all the others cluttering your bedside table,where e-books come and go like Angry Birds,stored on a digital library that no one else can see. The traditional printed word is under siege but the doomsday scenario may not be upon us anytime soon. Just picture a book launch where every guest has to bring along a Kindle and get to download the contents after swiping the credit card and signing confidentially agreements. Books still matter,as an artform,as a business — and as a public event.

dilip.bobb@expressindia.com