Books Take Electronic Turn--Alex Hamilton

At the recent book fair in Frankfurt, Germany, it was announced that there would be a $100,000 prize for the best new e-book. Quite a tidy sum—and especially nice odds for authors, given the dearth of books published only in electronic format.

Yet, with only 80,000 viewers/readers currently in consumers' hands, e-books are currently struggling to gain acceptance. Not only are there few viewers, but the existing technologies have a long way to go to challenge printed books in terms of quality, navigation and ease of use. Screens are small and the displays, which are based on projected light, are not easy to read for any length of time. Adding to the challenge, there are several different presentation formats vying for supremacy.