Mobile Computing News

Photo: Amazon

Author John Grisham, a sure-fire best seller every time he releases a novel, has given the go-ahead to his publisher, Random House, to digitise his work and make it available as e-books for e-readers like the Amazon Kindle. This is a major coup, with one of the most influential writers all but confirming what most of us already knew: e-books are here to stay.

Why Grisham’s decision matters

Random House has made all of Grisham’s titles available, totaling 23 books. The reason the availability of Grisham’s works as e-books is of significance is due to statements he made last year indicating his reservations about the format. The fear Mr. Grisham expressed was two-fold: firstly, digital books, if they caught on, would wipe out traditional publishers and bookstores and, secondly, it would make it very difficult for aspiring writers to break out.

Photo: Amazon

His second thought is based on the assumption that, with publishing becoming a free-for-all in a sense, the best of the crop – who would usually have been filtered rigorously by publishers and agents – would not rise to the top. As for his first thought, it would seem Grisham is of the belief that the ‘supposed wiping out’ of the current distribution model is necessarily bad. To that, one needs to remember that what digital distribution has shown, as has been the case throughout the evolution of commerce, is that newer models bring about acute pain for the older ones, but often prove to be better in the long run. And change needs to be embraced.

The e-book landscape

Photo: Netaholic13

The Amazon Kindle, which is said to have 80% market share on all e-book sales, dominates the e-books and e-readers landscape currently. The emergence of what may be its first viable competitor in the iPad has brought with it an industry-wide shakeup on the pricing and structure of e-book retailing, with publishers using it as an opportunity to push back against the businesses that own the distribution channels.

With the industry still being in its infancy, and players like the Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad and other e-readers jostling for position, publishers like Random House making a major play for market share and authors of the stature of John Grisham hopping on board, the evolution of digital reading still has many phases to go through.