Me, I like a good paperback novel - I suspect most people still prefer them. That said, when I talk to my 18 year-old son, he thinks anything that can be downloaded onto his Blackberry is "sweet", so there's the demographic shift in my own house. What strikes me as interesting is while electronic publishing in North America is a drop in the bucket in terms of overall sales (versus print), 2008 was a banner year for sales nonetheless. Will it become mainstream? Beats me - I know that e-books by and large aren't considered to be a legitimate publishing credit and there is a stigma associated with it. Still, when one looks at the fantastic success of e-book publishers like Samhain,  or Drollerie Press, there's a case to be made that a strong market exists for well written content. My own publisher, Lyrical Press, is a year old and does a fantastic job of getting it's name out there - is it a legitimate publishing credit? Well perhaps not yet, but someone out there is buying the product and I suspect it won't be long before the major traditional publishing houses give e-books a second look.

My publisher is Lyrical Press and it will come out as an e-book first, then in print if people like it enough. I doubt it would be stocked at your local bookstore though, you'd probably have to order it.

Beats the heck out of me. I know that e-books, for example, have done well in North America, but they're a drop in the bucket compared to good ol' print publications. That said, there may be a demographic angle to all of this - at 41 years of age, I like to consider myself fairly techie, but those who are under twenty five - well, if publishing can tap into their interests and values, that might be a happy little accident. (Did you know that in Japan, 50% of all books sold are electronic and specific to hand-held devices?)