Rekindling The Publishing Industry

By D.B. Grady

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The publishing industry is doomed. The publishing industry is saved. Those are the dissonant themes running throughout most coverage of the book business since the recession's start. The naysayers have a strong argument. In 2009, publishers HarperCollins and Random House axed multiple imprints. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt cut entire divisions, and put an unprecedented freeze on manuscript acquisitions. Big box booksellers Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million have posted quarterly losses, and Borders faces bankruptcy. Independent bookstores have not fared much better, with reports every day of venerable locals closing their doors. Executives, editors, authors and dealers have found themselves on the business end of the sharpened blade of an overstretched industry in a failing economy.

And then there is Amazon.com. With earnings robust and growth continuing, it is indisputable that they are weathering the storm. And through its strong position in a weak market, they are in the unique position of reordering an entire industry. The most audacious and exciting weapon in Amazon's arsenal is an electronic book called the Kindle.

E-books have been around for a long time. In 2000, Microsoft marketed a product called Reader, geared for desktop computers and existing personal digital assistants. Sony has long offered a tablet device, also called Reader, and lesser-known companies have put out competing products. But for all the technical capabilities, engineering achievements, and publishing partnerships built around and into these devices, none have gained traction in the cultural zeitgeist. Serious readers love books – not just the words within, but the objects themselves – and e-books have always felt like imposters.

Amazon is not a hardware company. Nor would many consider it a software company. Rather, it was built from the ground up as a book company, and that may be the reason the Kindle is succeeding where others have failed.

To see the device is to love the device. The Kindle is the size of a DVD case, and only slightly heavier. Taking a cue from Apple's minimalist designs, it is austere but for a small keyboard and buttons for navigation. It is intuitive. One need not possess a computer science degree to operate the Kindle. Indeed, Amazon diverged from its competitors by limiting the device in its capabilities, focusing instead on one thing, and doing it very well: displaying books to be read.

The e-ink technology of the Kindle screen is its tipping point. It is the reason that printed-and-bound books are destined to go the way of papyrus scrolls and chiseled stone tablets. With detail so fine and print so exact, it is hard to believe that the screen is digital at all. Unlike staring into a computer monitor or iPhone, the display is not backlit, and consequently, is not harsh on the eyes. Quite simply, reading a book on a Kindle feels like reading a book. After a few pages, the device seems to melt away until only the words remain, and the reader is no more aware that he or she is staring into technology than he or she might ponder the manufacture of a paperback novel.

On the Kindle, all books are created equal. Forest-slashing Stephen King tomes are no heavier than Ian Fleming pulps. The text-size of books can be increased or decreased, enabling every book to be a large-print edition. And through Text-to-Speech technology, the device can read books aloud, making every book an audio book.

The only up-front drawback is the price. The Amazon Kindle starts at $359. This is mitigated by the lower price of most e-books, which generally peak at $9.99, including new releases of even the hottest authors. And no trip to the bookstore is required. Utilizing the Sprint network, the Kindle is always online, everywhere, for free, allowing books to be purchased on the go, and appearing on the device instantaneously, no cables or computers required.

In the same way the iPod revitalized music and the iPhone rejuvenated mobile phones, the Amazon Kindle is rewriting the written word. If it reaches ubiquity, it may well have the biggest impact on reading since Johannes Gutenberg. And if that's the case, in this time of uncertainty, the publishing industry can consider itself saved.