The digitization of books has had a tremendous impact on the
world. It has been compared to the invention of the printing press and The Gutenberg Bible. Digitization is now
possible in almost every medium and allows the whole world to read books if
they have an electronic reading device and access to the Net. Many people think
that it will seriously hurt the publishing industry as well as the authors, while
others believe it will benefit everyone. Recent studies have shown that
publishing companies have increased their profits more than the US economy or
retail has. To digitize a book requires only the initial cost and basically can
be sold or given to anyone for almost nothing. Recently in a lawsuit between
Goggle and several large publishing companies, decisions were made to allow
Google to digitize out of print books that were still covered by copywrite laws.
Google would allow people to read 20% of a book and then offer the rest on the
Google Play store. Publishers and Google would then share the revenue made from
purchasing the entire book. Publishing companies have been able to save money
by not having to predict how many books to print and what books to publish.
This leads to fixing a set price and hopefully with e-readers, this price for
an electronic book will be much lower. Another benefit from digitization is
that smaller, lesser known authors have an opportunity to share their work and
well known authors won’t be able to charge such a large fee for theirs. Authors
have mixed feelings about the move to digitization. The Authors Guild also
filed a lawsuit against Google for lose of their rights. Authors are now
receiving $1,000 to $5,000 for promising work whereas before they were getting $50,000 to $100,000 and if the
average cost of an e-book is $12.99, 70% goes to the publisher and 25% of that,
or $2.27, goes to the author. The authors are losing almost half of their profits
when people buy e-books
One
question being asked is whether e-readers have increased the amount of reading
in the US. A recent survey made by the
Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that 19% of
people 16 years or older have not even read a book in a year which has
increased a great deal since 1978. It found that the average American reads 17
books a year in both English or Spanish and 21% of Americans had read an e-book
and owners of e-readers, read about 8 books more a year. Kindle is the most
popular e-reader but the survey said that 28% of Americans, 18 or older, own
devices to read books other than cell phones or computers. In the study, they
found that people who read e-books also read printed books. Although the e-reader
market seems to continue to grow, many people prefer the printed pages over 85%
of readers. Whether or not libraries and bookstores have been affected by e
–readers is difficult to determine. With the cuts in funding, many libraries
have been forced to close but the requests for e-books have increased. The
publishing companies put limits on how many e-books are allowed to be loaned
out. Bookstores, especially small ones, have had a decline in sales. They say
they have a difficult time competing with Amazon or Barnes and Nobles, whether
it is printed or e-books.
Digitization
is a wonderful new technology but it shouldn’t replace printed books or
microfilm. There need to be an actual physical copy of books. Whether you use
e-books or not, depends on your personal preference but it is a whole new
world.
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