The evolution of e-books and our literary future

What would our world look like without paperback books? One publishing company has taken one step closer to the reality of eliminating paperback books entirely. Dorchester Publishing has decided to change its printing schedule, focusing first on e-books, followed by a print-on-demand run of paperbacks. The question is: will this be the trend for paperback book publishers to follow?

Jason Boog, publishing editor at Mediabistro, and the editor of the publishing blogs GalleyCat.com and eBookNewswer.com, says sales of mass market paperbacks have decreased significantly in the past year. Boog says, “Many people are thinking this may be the end of the mass market paperback.”

Nancy Davenport, the Director of Library Services for the District of Columbia Library, says a shift to e-books is happening, but the library is far from obsolete. The DCLS has incorporated e-books into their book collections. Davenport says, “People come in to browse and, unless there’s something they want to read on the shelves, [they then] browse the digital catalog of books.”