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2018: the year of total digital takeover?

The end is nigh … 

In a survey of 840 international industry experts conducted by the Frankfurt Book Fair, nearly half said that by 2018, digital sales will overtake those of conventionally published books.

According to an article in today’s Bookseller, 27% of the experts surveyed in 2008 said that digital books would never overtake the printed word; this year, only 22% still hold that belief. 

A whopping 80% said they embraced this technological future rather than seeing it as a threat to the publishing methods of old.

From the article:

“Now is the time to seek out new strategies, to scour the market, to engage in international benchmarking,” said Juergen Boos, director of the Frankfurt Book Fair. “The one true business model is still a long way off and investments are still being held in check–at the same time, however, the fear that content will only be distributed free of charge on the Web in the future seems to have been averted for the time being.”

With news this month of Disney’s digital book push, the rumoured Apple Tablet “redefining newspapers, textbooks, and magazines,” the possible arrival of the Kindle in the U.K., and e-book sites launched by The Daily Beast and Sony, 2018 suddenly seems a lot closer …

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