The Amazon Kindle ebook reader family has attracted a huge amount of publicity over the last few months. The Kindle 2 was launched in February 2009, to replace the original Kindle. The new larger Kindle DX was launched shortly after, in June 2009 – specifically targeted at readers of newspapers, magazines and textbooks.
Sales of the Kindle readers, books from the Kindle bookstore and Kindle accessories are extremely good. Although many industry watchers have suggested that the Kindle price is too high consumers seem more than happy to pay for Amazon’s high tech toy. It’s noteworthy that, where a Kindle version of a book is available alongside a conventional paperback or hardback version, the Kindle version’s sales account for 35% from Amazon’s website.
That’s an extremely large number if you consider that the Kindle has been available for only eighteen months. Certainly the sales figures to date have been very impressive – but there are still many more sales opportunities for the conventional formats. Maybe this shouldn’t be a great surprise – it seems likely that anyone prepared to pay between $359 and $489 for an ebook reader is going to be a keen reader.
The predictions that the Kindle is going to change the way we read books are very credible, and probably in the near future. However, it’s also worth considering the other side of the coin – the Kindle is going to change the way books are published and delivered to the public.
We can probably expect the conventional publishing method – hardback release with paperback release following a few months later – to change. Publshers might consider that it would be sensible to issue the electronic version first and hold back on costly print runs until the level of interest has been established? And considering the reduced financial risk to publishing houses, and the somewhat reduced time required to get a new book onto Amazon’s new virtual shelves, might we see an increased willingness to debut new, untried authors?
We may even see a significant increase in authors who choose to self publish rather than use more traditional means.
In years to come, the Kindle will be superseded by electronic readers considerably more sophisticated. These will address the frequently cited shortcomings of today’s Kindle readers – no color, high cost, poor contrast etc. No doubt the current Kindle will seem primitive in comparison – but it is the Kindle that is revolutionising the way we read and the way in which books are published.
