Even in the modern world today, books are still considered the primary source of information and knowledge for most people. But it has become increasingly difficult to preserve books in its healthy state and also adding to the fact that the production of books is taking a lot from mother nature despite replantation initiatives. Books also takes up a lot of storage space which will result in consumers spending more of their hard-earned money on storage solution materials. However in 1970's Michael Hart had a thought. A digital copy of the Declaration of Independence was the birth of what is known now as an e-book, the digital equivalent to the traditional printed books (Sedycias, R., 2008).
When e-books first came about, it only attracted a specific group specializing in niche things. The convenience of e-books made it very popular almost instantly amongst avid readers who prefers to have their entire library stored digitally. This is also thanks to Adobe and their PDF format which became the most popular file format for e-books even to this very day. E-books were gaining such prominent momentum that it caused a scare to publishers like how MP3 terrified record labels and recording artistes, and just as terrifying as pirated movies were to film makers. Publishers and authors opposed this idea of a new publication genre for the same reason as any other document that has been digitized over the past decade or two. Digital formats are easily shared amongst consumers that the fear of major reduction in book sales are inevitable. This also directly affect authors and presented them with a dilemma. The property of e-books presents a prospect of world-wide distribution that is fast and efficient but at the same time, authors would not be able to receive the royalty they deserve from the sales of their books as e-book encourages peer-to-peer sharing. This is not to say that the same problem does not occur with traditional books, but the e-book format means that the publishing world has another thing to worry about.
The popularity of e-books paved way of a new technological device known as the e-book reader or e-reader. Bernhardt (1986) said that the physical fact of the text requires visual apprehension. Which means that a text can be seen, must be seen, in a process that is entirely different from the perception of speech. The e-book reader presents just that as it attempts to emulate the tangible feeling of reading a book. The emergence of an array of e-reader manufacturers with their ever-evolving products persuaded a lot of traditional book lovers to adopt the e-book genre.
Source: Orionwell, 2008
The publishing industry eventually embraced the arrival of e-books. Realizing and finding a way that it will benefit them more than it will hurt them, the e-book genre has been rapidly evolving since day one and presenting a wonderful world of possibilities to readers all over the world.
References:
1. Sedycias, R. (2008), The History and Popularity of E-books, online, retrieved 4 June 2010, from http://www.articlesbase.com/ebooks-articles/the-history-and-popularity-of-ebooks-481506.html
2. Bernhardt, S. A. (1986), Seeing the text, College Composition and Communication, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Feb., 1986), pp. 66-78, National Council of Teachers of English
3. E-Books Popularity On The Rise, television program, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney, 18 March 2009.
4. Sony's Latest E-Book Reader, online, retrieved 4 June 2010, from http://orionwell.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/sony-laytest-ebook-reader.jpg
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