E-Books - New Trends Within The E-book Industry

Despite the industry's supply and demand problems, many leading publishers continue to develop new e-book ventures, believing that jockeying for position now might pay off in the long run. For example, Time Warner founded iPicturebooks.com in February of 2001, offering roughly 200 e-books to children between six months and 10 years of age. Random House and Simon & Schuster also launched e-book initiatives aimed at youngsters. According to a May 2001 article in Inside.com, "The assumption—or hope—behind this foray into children's e-books is that today's computer-savvy kids will be more receptive to books on screen than adults are. To them, the thinking goes, it will be nothing to read a 200-page young adult novel or look at the illustrations in Eency Weency Spider in an electronic format."

Some industry experts believe that the future of e-books is in other niche markets, such as text books and reference publications. According to PC Magazine writer Christina Wood, "the Electronic Document Systems Foundation predicts that the likelihood of people reading novels or even magazines digitally in the future is low. The chance that they will read digital reference materials, professional journals, and reports, however, is good." While the direction the e-book industry will take in the future is unclear—as is the impact e-books will have on the traditional book industry—authors, publishers, and readers will likely continue to influence and be influenced by e-book technology.