July 25, 2010: Digital Books No Longer The Future

For years, SJ has insisted that digital books were the future of publishing. He's had a vision of a download store for years, and since e23 launched in 2005, it has become a huge success, with over 3,000 files ready for download -- including over 300 for GURPS.

Of course, Amazon leapt onto the ebook bandwagon a few years ago, too. How's it doing for them? They just announced that in the last three months, they sold 143 ebooks for every 100 hardcovers. While we note that the announcement gives only the relative positions of these sales and excludes paperback copies, this in no way diminishes the obvious implication: digital books are no longer the future; they're the present.

-- Paul Chapman

(edit: That's 143 ebooks for every 100 hardcovers. My apologies for the typo! pkc)