I am always interested in what Mark Coker has to say about the world of ePublishing. (For those who don't know, Mark is the creator of the ebook marketplace
http://www.smashwords.com , and has been something of a champion for the self published author and, possibly a thorn in the side of Amazon for some time.
Mark doesn't always get his predictions right but he isn't often that far off the mark. I was therefore very interested to read his predictions for ePublishing in 2013.
He certainly raises some interesting points, including some changes in the market that I and fellow authors are already experiencing (certainly the growth coming in the interest from Apple and Barnes and Noble whilst watching a decline in the performance of Amazon Kindle). I also agree that the library use of ebooks is something that really must get sorted soon.
Also very interesting to see his comments about tablets on the rise. It's funny, but when the Kindle 2 launched and really took the world by storm, the forums were full of people (myself included) saying that e-ink was everything and that nobody wanted to read an ebook on a tablet due to things like eyestrain. I think the real reason tablet ebook sales were so low was because at that time (early 2012) the choice was really just the iPad and that was particularly expensive (about five times the cost of the Kindle). But at that time did anyone expect the likes of Nexus 7 tablets, Playbooks and Kindle Fires (none of which use e ink) launching at prices not too dissimilar to the price of the Kindle 2 in those days? I certainly didnt. What has since happened is that there are a huge number of new tablets in circulation. Do I think the tablet market is bigger than the kindle market? Of course I do, the tablet has become the must have device, and of course you can run a Kindle app on it. And for me? Well even though I still love e ink - the last book I read was read solely on an iPad!
Anyway, interesting points made and you can read his predictions
On this link
Are you an author? Where do you see the market and the technology moving in the year ahead?
