Genesis and Foredoom of Digital Books

Abstract

This research defends the thesis that digital books reduce the characteristics of the communication medium “book” and are transforming into “non-books”. Two aspects are traced: the foredoom to failure of the commercial (paid) digital book and the end of the digital book in the “book” category. Symptoms for the failure of the commercial digital book are the drop of growth in the market of e-books, the transformation of the book from goods into service, being free of charge, parental and teacher’s resistance. Key factors in this resistance are compromising knowledge and teaching and violating readers’ rights. The reason for the failure of the digital book in the “book” category is determined – the factor of manipulating the content as well as the formats. The conclusion is that investment policies should be directed at publishing of printed books, the designed innovations should be orientated towards the physical issue and to be introduces in the paper and the printing.

Keywords: the end of ebook, digital book, ebook, book publishing, e-publishing, future of books