Can the e-book beat the printed book?

Steht das Verlagswesen vor einem riesigen Problem, oder wird es sich gegenüber dem elektronischen Buch behaupten? Elisabeth Ribbans hat sich bei Experten der beiden Branchen erkundigt.

YES!

Michael Sissons is a senior consultant and former chairman and CEO of the international literary agency The Peters Fraser and Dunlop Group Ltd in London (www.pfd.co.uk).

Michael Sissons

Now we have the e-book. No doubt this latest device will find its own market, but I don’t believe there’ll be a great demand for it. We may be living in an increasingly technical world, but enjoying a book is about relaxing, getting away from technology. There is something very satisfying about holding a book in your hands. In fact, studies have shown that, when you read on a screen, your eyes and brain are constantly trying to see where you are on the page and how far you are from the end. When you read from paper, on the other hand, the hands help to provide that information. Why else do we so often print out things we find on the Web?

As an experience, the e-book — even with a leather cover and the latest e-ink — is a long way from proving its potential. I hear claims about its environmental benefits, but I wonder if anyone has studied what the environmental damage of an e-book is throughout its entire life. And the idea that we can’t sustainably grow enough wood to support our wonderful book habit is nonsense.

The fact is that, despite new technologies, more books are being bought and read than at any other time in history. My prediction is that the traditional book- publishing market will slowly become a smaller part of the hugely growing entertainment and information market. And I think that’s fine. A few years ago, many people were saying Amazon would destroy business for bookshops and reduce choice. But the opposite has happened: Amazon has opened up the market in every part of the world for people who can’t easily get to traditional booksellers.

So, I can look at the e-book and then say, “Wow, it’s clever!” — but I don’t believe that it is the future. I am absolutely certain that, a hundred years from now, the book will still be as satisfying an experience as it has been since the early 1400s, when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, making books available to the masses.