Dead Tree Books. 07/31/2010
 
Since I published a book on kindle a few months ago, I entered a very different world; a world which many UK people have no real concept of.

In this world, many authors publish exclusively or primarily in electronic format. And many readers say it is their preferred medium for reading books. In fact, in this world, e format is so much the norm that print copies are referred to as Dead Tree Books - or DTBs, for short. The name suggests they are already perceived as quaint ancient artefacts.

Market research in US (currently the hub of e publishing) suggests that in a year's time, twice as many people will own ereaders. So, presumably, twice as many books, whatever their publishing history, will be bought in this form.

In a month's time, kindle is officially launched in UK. It will be interesting to see how quickly we consider our carbon footprints and realise that you don't have to kill a tree to buy a book.
 


Comments

Vail Lynch link
08/01/2010 05:48

Wow, didn't realize that UK readers didn't already have the Kindle available to them. With the UK joining the fray, I can only imagine that the ebook market is going to grow enormously.

I haven't seen any offical numbers, but I get the impression that the average person in the UK reads much more than Americans do..I think we're down to 3%, or if you believe Steve Jobs, 0%

I foresee the UK embracing this new technology.

I couldn't live without my Kindle and once I average the cost of books I've purchased with the multitude of free books available, my books are costing me about $2.00 each.

I don't know if it's the same in the UK, but in most countries outside the US, DTBs are horrendously expensive. If that is indeed the case in the UK, it's going to be a phenomenon when all the classics emerge free of charge for the UK reader. A high percentage ofthe classics I download were written by British authors, including about 40% of which were out of print for years in the US.

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