Kindle on Overtake

by Leigh K Cunningham
in On Writing and Publishing
19 Sep 2009 | 7 Comments

The Kindle version of The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown) is outselling the print version, according to the Amazon.com mystery/thrillers chart. The chart, updated hourly, combines both print and Kindle sales. At the very least, says Stephen Windwalker of Kindle Nation Daily, it seems that Kindle sales of The Lost Symbol will equal, if not surpass, the hardcover sales.

Daniel Menaker, former Senior Vice President and Executive Editor-in-Chief at Random House, recently wrote on his Barneasandnoble.com Review, that electronic-book-text digitization will happen in a "financially and organizationally seismic way very quickly." This, "Gutenberg-level shift in reading culture will make the challenges of present-day hardcopy publishing all the more agonizing, immediate, and dramatic."

Menaker is not the first to suggest that publishing as we have known it will soon go the way of the facsimile. This observation sprouted some years ago when e-books were in their infancy, and many did not anticipate how quickly and dramatically readers would embrace the idea of reading a novel on an electronic device. While technology has enabled e-books, and pricing makes it a competitive and viable option, environmental concerns will surely give the movement even greater impetus.

While Kindle sales of The Lost Symbol do not sound the death knell for printed books, it is evidence that the touted new era in publishing is no longer on approach, it is here, now. Within a decade or two, e-books will be the norm and environmentalists will be busy lobbying for a ban on printed books in order to reduce our reliance on paper and the consequential destruction of our forests. As Daniel Menaker says, it will happen in a "seismic way very quickly." What else have we seen in recent times that prove this is so?

Regards
Leigh

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Comments (7)

As a fellow author I'm excited at this prospect. Some publishers can take up to 18 months to get a book on the shelves. our own book took over 12 months. now all we have to do is get it professionally edited and then formatted ready for download.

after consulting with my editor she told me my next novel could be ready for download in under 3 months. 9 months of wasted time cut out for everyone readers and writers.

Kev

22 Sep 2009, Kev, http://www.johnnymarsh.com

I think you have it in exactly the right perspective, Leigh, and thanks for the mention. And Lucy, yes, I read my Kindle in the bath and on my side, or on the beach when it's low tide....

21 Sep 2009, Stephen Windwalker, http://thekindlenationblog.blogspot.com/

Seriously, if you don't have a Kindle, you're missing out big time. It makes life so much easier, it's cheaper and I don't have to go through my bookcase every year or so because it's overflowing. I like that I'm not cutting down a tree when I buy a book.

21 Sep 2009, Laney T from OH

I don't own a Kindle and I'll be devastated if printed books become something we tell our great-grandkiddies about (but fear it will happen). I just can't imagine settling down on a dark, rainy night with a block of whatever. I mean, can you even read it laying on your side, like a book, or in the bath? Lucy shudders.

21 Sep 2009, Lucy Wilson-Browne

I have to admit, my son's ipod still causes me a problem!! It wasn't THAT long ago that we were all buying cassettes, was it?

21 Sep 2009, Louisa Carrington

I'm showing my age now, but I worked in a company that had a telex machine and there was only one woman who had the skills to use it!! Then when the fax arrived, we were all in awe since everyone learned how to use it.

21 Sep 2009, Kat Walsh

I was doing my MBA when a girl in my class who worked for a consulting firm showed us this amazing invention called email and encouraged us all to get it so we didn't have to fax anymore.

21 Sep 2009, Sandra Williamson

Kindle on Overtake

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