From an article in The Hindu:
“Retailers should take a relook, rather reinvent themselves to stay in contention,” cautions V.K. Karthika, publisher and chief editor of Harper Collins India.
…
“Retail stores have of late become display centres where you see and choose books. Then you go home and order your choices online. That is what everyone does these days,” she said.
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“In the US, 50 per cent of our revenue is from sale of e-books. Here, we are starting it in July-August which will also be available for purchase through online book stores besides e-readers.”
Ms. Karthika said there would be a sea change in the book publishing scene in the country over the next five years. The discounts offered by online stores to lure book buyers would see cuts and eventual extinction in the long run. And, the thing about e-readers was that they created a ‘captive audience’. The inherent danger of this, she said, was that over time the publisher would be bypassed and everyone would start putting “rubbish out there without it being filtered by an editor or a reader”.
Hat tip to the Literary Saloon.
