Reports of the Print Book's Demise Are Highly Exaggerated

You heard me. (Or, to be more precise, read me.) Yes, ebook popularity is exploding. Print sales have declined, enough to cause this latest stir. Oh. My. God. Did you see that headline? "Mass Paperback Publisher Goes All Digital" -- is this the part where I should gnash my teeth or rent my clothes in a panic?

First, as Douglas Adams so delightfully put it, don't panic.

Second, the headline fails to mention a small (but not unimportant) detail in the lead paragraph. And I quote:

"As digital books continue to gain market share, one of the country's oldest mass paperback publishers is abandoning its traditional print books and making its titles available in digital format and print-on-demand only."

Huh? Did you see those last two words? Print-on-demand only. So, in fact, this publisher is NOT abandoning print publishing entirely. The headline is completely wrong. Bollixed. F*cked up.

If print sales are down, it stands to reason that a publisher would choose to publish using print-on-demand technology. It's cheaper. It's more flexible. It eliminates the need to warehouse large numbers of books that may not sell. Blah, blah, blah. It also shows that print isn't dead just yet.

A few ages ago (in Internet time :)), I did a guest blog post on Poe's Deadly Daughters called "Print Books Will Never Die." I still believe that this is true. They may become a smaller part of the market, but I don't think they're going to die.

You can read the post here (along with some of the most spectacularly weird spam comments ever) and see what you think for yourself.

I'm not saying that ebooks aren't important. I'm personally doing quite nicely selling (and reading) ebooks myself. All I'm saying is that I don't think they spell the absolute end for print books.

The continued interest in this contraption suggests that print books are still hanging onto life. Talk about your print-on-demand technology!

This Newsweek article raises some of the same issues I did, without going so far as to make a brash prediction. (But, hey, no one listens to me. So I can make any brash prediction I like.) (And, just as an aside, even if ebooks supplanted print ones, that wouldn't necessarily put libraries, which are starting to offer ebook downloads out "on loan," out of business. Ugh, those headline writers! But I digress ...)

And I can't seem to find the article, but I know I read somewhere about a middle-aged man with a young daughter who preferred print books to ebooks and was scandalized at the thought that she would only read ebooks in the future. I have heard that most e-reader users are in the 35 to 50 age group (or thereabouts). They're the people who can afford to buy these contraptions, right?

Anyhow, I will leave you with one last image. And another reason why print books should continue to exist.