I received from my daughter for Christmas 2010 a Kindle that enables me to download as many as 3000 books. It has proved an invaluable resource. I have downloaded the Middle Length Discourses and Connected Discourses of the Buddha into the Kindle, plus other books and PDF files that prove very supportive for my travels as a Dharma teacher. The two books of the Buddha come to around 3500 pages. I can download dictionaries, Shakespeare, literature out of copyright time and much else for free or very little. It makes for lighter travel and convenience in reading on buses, trains and flights. I can download other books for a price cheaper than paperback. For those of us who love books, it makes one gasp at the digital revolution that has taken place in the last year.
Furthermore, the good old days when authors got reasonable advances for their books have gone unless the author is really in demand. Some authors are contributing to the actual cost of publishing the book or the design and layout or both. Authors may have to buy hundreds of copies of their own book. I read in another message to authors that the average salary is £16,000 per year for a full time author. An author earns on average £4000 per book. Authors have a middle class reputation but often work for far less per hour than the minimal wage. Writing books is a labour of love as well as dealing with rejection slips.
I received last week an e-mail from Hatchett UK, a company which represent publishers. They sent their email to all the authors with these publishing houses giving an update on what is going on in the world of books.
In their email, Hatchett UK said Research showed that 1.3 million ebook readers were sold in the UK over Christmas 2011 alone. All told, there are perhaps 3.5 million ebook readers in circulation in the UK, and as many as 7 million tablets. Internationally, over 20 million tablets were sold in just the last quarter of 2011 alone.
Hachette UK-published ebooks continue to grow at an extraordinary rate, from 1% of our relevant sales in 2009 to 12% in 2011. That number is running at over 20% so far in 2012 and, for fiction, at over 30%.
At present most readers are simply swapping the purchase of a print book for an ebook.
“The market for printed books is shrinking. Last month, in Britain, sales of printed books were down by 13% year-on-year, and in 2011 the total consumer market for printed books in the UK was down by 7.8% – the third successive year of decline. “
“Free reference material, satellite navigation and free online resources have severely reduced the sales of printed dictionaries, maps and guide books. The continuing move online, whether for ebooks, printed books or free reference material, is having a marked effect on our traditional markets and particularly on those booksellers who have no significant digital offering.”
After reading the report, I was left wondering whether beloved books will gradually go the same way as LPs and cassettes that became CDs, MP3 players and downloads. I have at home more than 2000 books. The entire content of these books has the potential to fit into a Kindle or similar gadget weighing around 290 grams or 10 ounces.
I still buy books. fiction and non fiction. It is still easier to look through printed pages from beginning to end. Many books are beautifully published that evoke a respectful response especially hard back books. For example, I love reading classic books in the Everyman Library series. A joy to read.
The Kindle and other ebooks and tablets are extremely convenient. That’s all.
As our beloved poet, John Keats wrote in Endymion:
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness;
Do keep reading. Books.