Battleground: E-Book

Remember how they all said that the e-book would replace its paper equivalents. How we all laughed at the thought! "Ha ha," said we. "Ha ha!"

Well, it looks as if the battle is hardly over. It has, one might say, only barely begun. To determine whether or not e-books can ever be profitable, two behemoths have entered the ring. In the one corner we have Scholastic. Their "BookFlix" is apparently, "an educational Web site pairing short films based on popular picture books along with nonfiction e-books that allow early readers to follow the text online." In the other corner? Weighing in at an ungodly amount of money is Disney itself.

Meanwhile, the Disney Publishing Group plans a similar project later this year, making favorites such as "The Jungle Book" and "Cinderella" available online. While Scholastic, for now, is sticking to the school and library market, Disney will offer books to general consumers, charging a fee, still to be determined, for downloads.

"We saw a void in the marketplace and decided to act upon it," said Jon Yaged, U.S. publisher of the Disney Book Group.

The void at the center of the marketplace. Almost sounds poetic if you tilt your head and squint just right. I don’t know if or where all of this might lead.

Obviously these are just the early days of e-books. In time our other publishers may forge ahead in similar areas. Whether or not it is A) profitable and B) a good idea remains to be seen.

Thanks to Galleycat for the link