Forrester Research reports on e-books
Thursday, March 1 2001
Forrester Research, an independent Intemet research firm, has issued a report that forecasts slow growth for both e-books and e-book reader devices. However, the report states that strong projected sales of custom-- printed trade books and digitized textbooks will force publishers to dramatically restructure their processes and technologies.
According to Forrester, digital delivery of custom-printed books, textbooks, and e-- books will account for revenues of $7.8 billion (17.5 percent of publishing industry revenues) in 5 years. Of this amount, only $251 million will come from e-books for e-book devices.
Forrester reports that taken together, custom printing, digital textbooks, and ebooks will pressure publishers to offer greater consumer choice, variable presentation and delivery, and new ways to purchase-none of which authors can do themselves. The result is a new model that Forrester calls "multichannel publishing." Successful publishers will manage content from a single, comprehensive storehouse-- a repository containing modular book content and structure.