rajeev sharma

Industry of e-books and associated reading devices remains in its infancy, and it is believed electronic publishers can eventually develop technologies that substantially reduce eyestrain. For now, there aren't many people interested in curling up with a good mystery on their PDA or laptop. E-books are also not very user friendly in terms of transferring the book from one computer to another as some of them are licensed for use on only one computer. Imagine a situation where I have to transfer a digital book from my office computer to my PDA and then my home computer. This problem does not arise with a normal book. Disincentives in making e-books successful far exceed the incentives of making it possible. Publishers are afraid that industry will face piracy problem while the authors are looking for ways to get their work appreciated by readers from all over the world. One can draw parallels with the music industry where new singers and composers are interested in publishing their work on the net whereas the music industry is not very enthusiastic about it. New singers and authors are using more and more micro-publishing tools, e.g., weblogs, online journals, etc. to get noticed. Some of them have been successful in getting recognized and have signed contracts for making inroads in the traditional industry (publishing and music industry). World Wide Web is now driving innovation and creativity in these areas which was earlier getting monopolized by some of the business conglomerates