In only three years the page has turned for electronic books; American publishers generated $2.1 billion in revenues from them last year, up by more than 3,200% from 2008, according to BookStats, which tracks the industry. In theory e-books offer better margins, because they are cheaper to produce. But publishers fret that customers will soon expect to pay less for all books. That won’t be so good for profits.
And an even greater threat than Amazon looms. According to Claudio Aspesi, an analyst at Sanford C Bernstein, a bank, the march of Penguin and others into digital formats could make them more vulnerable to piracy. E-books are easy to share by e-mail and speedy to steal: it can take around four seconds to download a pirated version of “The Help”, a novel about servants, but over three hours to download the film. If piracy hits publishing like it hit music, profits could evaporate, he says. Here’s hoping for a happier ending.
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