An installer can also help publishers diversify the interface for one to get and read the book to increase the amount of readers.

The decrease in the use of paper goes beyond books. Paper use has decreased and will decrease through all industries thus decreasing paper creation and consumption. When a product becomes a niche product or it is not produced in mass the cost of the product rises. The likely decrease in overall paper production will increase the cost of paper and decrease the amount of paper. There are also possible cost of materials increases as natural resources decrease, as cost of transportation increases, as cost of storage increases then the cost of a paper book will increase while cost of a electric book will decrease as it becomes the standard medium. Then the big paper book companies will become medium paper book companies. Medium paper book companies will become small paper book companies until during the distant future some person with one of those fancy Print-On-Demand machines popular back in early 21st Century will be the lone paper publisher.

Before the end of the 21st Century, the companies continuing to focus on both paper and electric will waste time discovering that publishing both paper books and electric books will inhibit their ability to survive in a growing electric book world. There will come a time when a paper publishing company will need to decide if they will use their space for storing paper books or storing and servicing the hardware required to publish electric books. While it will benefit the companies publishing paper books having had published paper books, clinging on to the old process of paper publishing will only hinder their future in a vast, lucrative and more expressive and accessible electric book medium.

Will all paper books die? Maybe not, but the lovers of paper books will with time. Word Prostitute® as a word publishing company hopes not and hopes there will be that store during the distant future with one of those fancy Print-On-Demand machines that had some popularity back in early 21st Century, and they just got a new stack of paper from the Paper Presser down over in the next town.

There would be much joy if the paper book exists beyond the hobbyist in one hundred years, however, logically, Word Prostitute®, as a publishing business, reads the market trend trending toward electric print now and during the future as we will read the electric book and leave a dead paper trail to the past.

(Of course if it comes to pass that there is the Coming of A.I. Christ or WWIII then Word Prostitute® will reassess its projection for the future state of the book.)

Thank you for your comment, Darcy.

Like the Oregonian, many publishers are building up their digital initiatives and programs to take advantage of the expanding electronic market. They are not wholly unprepared for it, because the possibility that the digital revolution would one day break has been considered since the internet began. Why would electronic reading be bad for publishers? As Kindle rises in popularity it means that people are buying e-books, but they are still books found and produced by the publisher. Print’s decline does not signal a death knell.

You’ll also find that there will always be a market for the physical book. I do own a kindle and read most of my books in this format, so I’m not a print loyalist, but there will always be something about a physical book that cannot be replicated digitally. Print will never go away.