Digital Publishing Buzz Steals The Show

There was an interesting article over at NYTimes.com yesterday that talked about the fast growing market of ebooks (regular books in digital form).  The popular BookExpo America tradeshow wrapped up this weekend in New York, and the buzz around the tradeshow floor was all about electronic readers, ebooks, digital publishing, and any other buzzword that relates to the hottest trend in publishing.

Of course, there are mixed feelings on the subject of digital publishing, with even a few authors that are calling digital stories “elitist”. But the authors that are making the sales and moving forward with technology are the ones embracing devices like the Amazon Kindle and the future lineup of electronic reading devices set to launch in the coming months.

As reported in the NYTimes.com article, ebooks make up a mere 1%-3% of sales so far, but it’s the fastest growing segment of the publishing industry.

At any rate, it’s a great article with even better insight on the recent show and the publishing industry, so check it out here when you get a chance.

Printed Monographs Going All Digital

With the recent major news involving a few large newspapers switching to an all digital form, it’s no surprise to hear that many universities will soon be producing digital editions of their monographs.

With the economic downturn, university presses and university library budgets are strained, and one of the quickest and easiest ways to save a significant amount of money is by switching to an all digital version. One of the first institutions to announce the switch to digital was the University Of Michigan.

Readers of the monographs will still be able to use a print on demand service if they want to have a physical version of it, but over 50 of the 60+ monographs the press publishes each year will be available digitally.

As reported by InsideHigherEd.com:

“Because digital publishing is so much less expensive — with savings both in printing and distribution — the press expects to be able to publish more books, and to distribute them electronically to a much broader audience. Michigan officials said that they don’t plan to cut the budget of the press — but to devote resources to peer review and other costs of publishing that won’t change with the new model. Significantly, they said, the press would no longer have to reject books deemed worthy from a scholarly perspective, but viewed as unable to sell.”

Although Michigan is one of the first schools to make the total switch to digital, other schools who have been experimenting with digital book publishing, such as Penn State, will soon realize the cost saving benefits of making the switch to digital.