Books

Google is roiling the book industry with a plan to publish out of print books online¹ (Gleick 2008)

In an 3/19/09 WSJ essay entitled "How the E-Book will Change the Way we Read and Write"² (Johnson 2009), Steven Johnson argues that the e-book will revolutionize the way we consume books. Specific quotes will become popular as they are linked to. People will flit from one book to another instead of staying immersed.

A 5/4/09 WSJ "Publishers Nurture Rivals to Kindle"³ explains how publishers of periodicals (newspapers and magazines) are hoping that people will pay for content on a tablet reader.

Textbook publishers are now offering book rental (August 2009). The idea is to give authors some royalties and to compete with second-hand book sales.

Footnotes

1. Gleick, James. 2008. "How to Publish Without Perishing". The New York Times. November 30, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/opinion/30gleick.html. Accessed November 30, 2008.

2. Johnson, Steven. 2009. "How the E-Book Will Change the Way We Read and Write". The Wall Street Journal April 20, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123980920727621353.html, Accessed April 20, 2009.

3. Ovide, Shira and Geoffrey A. Fowler. 2009. "Publishers Nurture Rivals to Kindle". The Wall Street Journal. May 4, 2009. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124139557124881817.html. Accessed May 4, 2009.