E-books are slowly catching on. Reader John Hagewood alerted me to John Grisham’s website were, as of December 24, it was mentioned that Grisham’s works will finally be available in e-book form.
On to England. The Guardian has reported that sales of Sony Readers by Waterstone’s have reached 30,000 since their introduction in September, and downloads from Waterstone’s e-book store have exceeded 75,000.
“We are very pleased with sales so far,” said Waterstone’s commercial director, Neil Jewsbury, calling the figures “excellent” and suggesting that “UK readers and bookbuyers are ready for digital books”.
With a sevenfold increase of ebook downloads on Christmas Day, it’s clear that many of the Readers were bought as Christmas presents, but Waterstone’s are confident that this is a new phase in digital publishing.
…This comes in the same week that the independent publisher Canongate announced plans to digitise its entire catalogue.
“The way people read books is changing,” said Canongate managing director Jamie Byng. “Paper books will continue to dominate for the foreseeable future, but as a publisher it’s important we embrace what technology is allowing people to do.”
