The pace of change for the book publishing industry is speeding up! Amazon has seen a growing demand for e-books, selling six Kindle books for every 10 physical books on the 410,000 e-books it has in stock, and it was the most gifted item in Amazon’s history. Barnes and Noble has recently come out with its own e-reader, the Nook, which was basically a modified version of the Kindle, but now with the advent of the iPad, Apple’s tablet, the e-book market looks poised for a quantum leap. For one thing, the tablet permits the use of color, opening up the market for a whole new range of books that otherwise were not suited to e-book format. More importantly, Apple’s iTunes provides  a proven distribution channel.

Amazon had recently announced increased royalties for self-published authors using the Kindle Digital Text Platform. They offered 70% of the book’s price after delivery costs, but stipulated that books must sell for up to $9.99, and be 20% cheaper than the print format. Apple’s new iPad e-book service lets authors fix their own price, and takes a flat 30% commission, and, not surprisingly, five big publishing houses - Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin, and Macmillan - have already signed on with Apple, putting pressure on Amazon.

In late-breaking news, Amazon issued a statement essentially capitulating to the publishers on the pricing issue:

"We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles," Amazon said in its statement. "We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books."

As the print industry reinvents itself, especially with multimedia options (see below), fasten your seat belts, it's going to be an interesting ride!