The Future of the Printed Book

If novelist Robert Coover had his way, all book shops would close their books and doors forever. Coover's vision of books is one in which they will be written, distributed and read by a computer or some other electronic reading device; a future without printed books. Coover, who is also the founder of the Electronic Literature Association, is not alone in his vision of the future. He is joined by other writers and cyberpunks who claim we are on the verge of a publishing and reading revolution greater than that brought about by the Gutenberg press. Whether in the New York Times Book Review or at writers' conventions, Coover's message is the same: "The book is dead." But to paraphrase an even greater novelist than Coover, "The news of the book's death has been greatly exaggerated."

There are several things working against Coover's vision of the future. First in order to read a digital book, one must own a computer or a digital reading device like Sony's E-book Reader or Amazon's Kindle. While most of us in developed countries can afford a computer or digital reader, it is going to be a long time before everyone in developing countries can afford one.Secondly, the book is at present the optimal reading device. Hundreds of years of evolution have brought the book to the place where it is easy to hold and easy to read. During that same time period, the human body has changed very little, meaning that all reading devices must take into consideration the human anatomy if they want to be successful, particularly the human hands and eyes. Ancient scrolls and clay tablets were not something you could curl up in bed with, neither is the computer. While it might be relatively easy to read a newspaper or magazine on-line, I find that reading a book on my computer is hard on my eyes, my nerves and my buttocks.

While you can curl up on your bed with your Sony or Amazon reader, the initial cost of these devices ($300-$400) makes them prohibitive for a lot of people. Their cost makes one reluctant to take them to the beach, into the bathtub or other places where they could get damaged or stolen. Furthermore, like the computer, they are harder on the eyes than a printed book.

Thirdly, conventional books have, and will always have, an aesthetic edge over their digital counterparts. Digital books might have fancy graphics, sound, and other bells and whistles, but their plastic casing will not appeal to the person who admires the artwork of a beautifully designed dust jacket or the intricacies of a hand tooled leather binding.

Having said all that, digital books are here to stay and are changing the book world, particularly the world of out-of-print books. In the past, a book went out of print when sales dropped off, and the publisher no longer could justify another press run. Once the book was out of print, the only way to find a copy was through a used book store.

Today, however, it costs little for a publisher to store all of its books on its computers, and allow people to download them for a fee. Computers have made it financially feasible for publishers also to print and bind just one copy when a customer desires it. This is known as print on demand.

The competition on the internet among sellers of used and out-of-print books is so fierce, however, that many out-of=print books are selling for a dollar or less, making it still cheaper for the most part to buy a printed rather than a digital edition. And there are still many people who want a printed edition either because it is easier to read or because they are collectors and want the real thing.

There are advantages to digital books, however. The first advantage is that they don't take up much room. The impact of digital books on reference works has been enormous. Encyclopedias and other multi-volume reference sets that one only uses on occasion have almost disappeared from book shelves. Digital versions of these unwieldy and expensive tomes make sense. The second advantage is the search function. One can easily locate a particular word or passage in a digital book, whereas in a conventional book, even one with a good index, this is not always easy to do.

Free digital books have also impacted the printed book and will continue to do so. The Gutenberg Project is the best known and offers 100,000 titles of classics and other books in the public domain for free. I often download books from www.gutenberg.org. However, I download them generally because I need a title that I can't find anywhere else or because I want a searchable text. If I plan to read the book, then I look for a printed copy.

Digital books have been around long enough to make some predictions about the future. Current trends seem to indicate that publishers will cut back on the number of copies they print due to the high cost of printing and the availability of print on demand if someone wants a copy later on. This will impact the world of remaindered and publisher's closeouts, those cheap books piled up on tables at the front of your local Borders or Barnes and Noble.

Other than that I see little future impact on printed books. Most of the damage that digital books can do to the printed book has already been done, and the publishing industry shows little sign of closing up shop. The biggest danger to the printed book is the failure of literate people to pick up a book and read. But the digital book is subject to the same danger.

Digital books, like audio books and other technologies which were suppose to kill off books, will complement not supplant the printed book. The printed book is still the optimal reading device. Black print on a soft white background is easy on the eyes. Dust jackets and leather bindings make books objects of art and very desirable collector's items. An author can sign your printed copy. Your friend can write a beautiful gift inscription in a book he gives you. These and other advantages over the e-book ensure the permanency of the printed book and its dominance over all competitors.