Will digital books replace hardcovers?
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The sales of digital books in India is expected to pick up in coming months but that will not impact the aficionados love for hardcover books as has been the case in the West, say major publishers here.

India may see good rise in sales of digital books as downloading them on mobiles becomes a possibility but their growth trajectory may not be same as in the West, they say.

"New technology creates a new reader. Digital books will have their share of techno enthusiasts who will read them. But, that will not impact print versions of books,"

Vivek Mehra, MD and CEO, SAGE Publications says it is very difficult to believe that digital books will replace paper books.

"Since the digital age, HP sells more printers than they did before the proliferation of the Internet. Not all content is easily readable in digital format. Most content is available on a subscription. An individual could license the use of a journal’s back-files for a year but the price to purchase would be prohibitive for an individual," says Mehra.

India is the world's third-largest book market and with rise in literacy rate, the non-academic book market in India is growing at a rate of around 15 per cent which itself shows the popularity of printed books here.

At last month's DSC Jaipur Literary Festival, Chairman and CEO of the Penguin Group, John Makinson said, "the idea of the book dying comes up all the time which is wrong. Books matter more in India than anywhere else we publish them."

A report by market research company Forrester acknowledges that the dynamics for higher growths for ebooks vests with consumer markets like India and China. Advantage India lies in its high quality and low cost of output.

"Physical books will always have a market. Digital books should not be seen as replacing them but should be seen as an added source of revenue through a new product line that caters to and targets a different set of audience,"

"Ebooks have a lot of advantages. If you do not want to take the full book, then pay only for the chapters you want. Once publishers start digitalising their content, ebooks will be very cheap," says Gupta.

Although audio books have been around for a long time in India but they have been mainly targetting children. But, the trend is changing now.

"Audiobooks are more effective than other type of books. The listener feels connected and the learning and understanding is more in an audio book than a normal book," says Abhilash R, Business Development Head, audiobooksindia.com, an online portal for audio books.

Apart from targeting the people who can not read, audio books can also be handy for older people whose eyesight keeps getting worse with age. Also, they are environment friendly as they do not use ink and paper.

"Audio books have a very niche market now. With proliferation of technology, their sales will increase in future. Also, people need to be educated about their uses," says Kunal Pancholi, co-founder of reado.com, a company dealing in audiobooks.