The E-Survey
Says . . .
FROM PUBLISHING
TRENDS (APRIL 2001)
With
Vista Computer Services’ survey of publishers’
attitudes toward ebooks and new technology about to
be unleashed, and Simba’s just-released E-ssential
Knowledge: The Consumer E-Books White Paper ($495 from
simbanet.com),
Publishing Trends decided to ask a (very) few
questions of its own. We emailed a sampling of our correspondents
and subscribers a brief questionnaire, and herewith
are some highlights:
•
Seventy percent of our respondents do believe
that the ebook market will grow into a real distribution
channel, though there were endless cavils — it will
only be robust in certain segments of publishing (academic
and educational were most often mentioned); e-paper
is the way to go; the prices (of both handhelds and
ebooks) will have to go down — and even under the best
circumstances, it will evolve into only 10–20 percent
of the book retail market.
•
Most respondents thought it would take 2–5 years
before publishers felt compelled to produce a significant
portion of their titles as ebooks as well as p-books.
•
Somewhat surprisingly, respondents thought it would
take five or more years before print-on-demand would
be available in bookstores, though many thought the
chains would get there a lot faster, probably in 2–3
years. As one respondent asked, “How does a store set
up a kiosk or somesuch to sell PoD books that will give
as much exposure as even a book-laden shelf?” Another,
however, opined that “Once books regularly come in electronic
form, PoD will be the ‘special order’ item available
to those who still cling to ‘hard-copy’ books.” One
respondent called PoD “probably inevitable . . . regrettable,
but inevitable,” while another echoed that print-on-demand
messiah, Jason Epstein, writing that “PoD, not
ebooks, is where the action is.”
©2001
Publishing Trends
