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By Paul Biba

images.jpgFrom her article in the Sacramento Book Review:

As I read through the month, I snuck looks at the various eBook blogs and industry news pages that I frequent, adding comments where incited to and re-tweeting when especially impressed. A particular piece by J. A. Konrath caught my eye on Monday, titled The Changing Face of Publishing; in it, Konrath voices fears that the paper book industry may be spiraling downward.

“I’m sensing a shift.” he writes, “And this shift will likely prove fatal for many of the parties involved. If, as I suspect, publishers are going to print fewer books, that will result in a death spiral. Fewer books printed means fewer sold in bookstores, which will no longer be able to stay open. Without bookstore orders, publishers will print even fewer books. And so on.”

After reading the above, I glanced over at the sizable stack of advance copies on my backyard table and realized that if Konrath’s prediction played out, my lengthy season of receiving free paper books to review might also be waning. Advancing technology takes its toll – remember metal typewriters with hand-turned rollers? I saw one the other day on display in an antique store window; it was selling for $300.

As long as paper books are around I’ll read, review and display them on my shelves, encouraging my children to take down a volume when bored, or curl up with them by the fire on a windy winter night, reading from tangible pages in the flickering firelight, yet I will also continue to write eBooks and self-publish online, for that’s where the money is. No one buys the paper versions of our books anymore – they are simply too expensive.

The air surrounding my stack of books has a melancholy feel to it all of the sudden, as if an end to an era looms, while under it another gathers strength.

 
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