Digital Facts of Life for Book Lovers

I almost fell out of my chair when I read Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' interview with Deborah Solomon in The New York Times Magazine about the Kindle and digital book sales. Think there's any going back to the glorious preeminence of the printed word? 

Forget it. Game over.

Here's what Bezos said: "For every 100 copies of a physical book we sell, where we have the Kindle edition, we will sell 48 copies of the Kindle edition. It won’t be too long before we’re selling more electronic books than we are physical books. It’s astonishing."

Yes, it is. No wonder there are a lot of frightened veterans in the book business.

But even as reluctant writers must embrace the pixelated world for connecting with readers -- and must be energetic and creative in how they do it -- they can take solace in one reality that will never change: Compelling stories, engagingly told, will always matter.

And one more thing: If not long ago scoring a deal with a top book publisher was the only road to victory, today there are many paths to success. That's good news.

Comments

[Tam Harbert]

Many paths indeed. Good stories, well told, will always be in demand. First there was the oral tradition, then hieroglyphics, then Gutenberg came along - and the printing press has had a good long run. Now, we just have a different medium. Who knows how this is going to change writers, and readers, lives? It's going to be very interesting finding out.