Colophon

The last blog post discussed some of the ways that digital publishing has influenced writers and pioneered new genres such as hypertext. This post, the last in a series of prefatory posts leading up to the Nov. 18 discussion, will look at some of the ways digital publishing and e-readers such as Kindle are influencing the book publishing industry.

Much ado was made earlier this year when Amazon.com announced it had sold more e-books than hardcover books in June 2010, the first time such a thing had happened. Is this a fluke or the beginning of a trend that will see sales of hardcover books continue to fall as sales of e-books surge? Likely the former. Not only does the spike in e-book sales coincide with a spike in Kindle sales as costs of the device come down and the number of books available in Kindle format rise, but it is also important to remember that Amazon.com’s numbers refer only to hardcover books, not paperbacks, which continuously outsell hardcover books.

Nonetheless, some publishing companies are anxious to get a slice of the digital publishing pie. Literary agent Andrew Wylie is leading the way with Odyssey editions, as mentioned in the first post on this topic. Wylie is a curious case because he is actually an agent, not a publisher, and thus his decision to enter publishing shows that the sales and marketing possibilities of e-books are promising indeed. It remains to be seen whether other publishers will follow suit, but it is highly probable that they will.

At the same time, Google has settled a lawsuit brought by the Association of American Publishers regarding Google Books. The company’s plan to “organize all the world’s information” will continue, possibly to the detriment of libraries, which could eventually be squeezed out of the equation altogether.

What’s next for publishers, writers and readers? Is it possible that books will go the way of the telegram? Answers to these questions and more will be provided Thursday November 18 at 7pm at Prague’s National Gallery in Holešovice, when The Prague Post hosts a literary discussion entitled “Are Books Dead?” The panel will consist of Dr. Douglas Shields Dix, cultural theorist at Anglo-American University, Petra Hůlová, Czech novelist and Magnesia Litera Prize winner, David Shorf, deputy editor in chief at Czech newspaper Lidové noviny, and Howard Sidenberg, publisher of Prague’s Twisted Spoon Press.