Many questions over the future of books were raised yesterday at the "Israel Hi-Tech and New Media Companies at the Service of the Publishing Industry" conference at the Jerusalem International Book Fair. The Internet is altering the status of copyrights, digital formats are breathing new life into books and it will soon be possible to order the printing of a single book. The role of publishers is shifting in an age in which self-publishing is possible, authors promote themselves on the Internet and more online books are written every day.

Internet search engines are becoming more sophisticated and so are digital libraries, like the Google Book Search Library Project. New digital printing technologies have been developed, and the bandied about transition to electronic books may soon become a reality.

But Michael Palgon, executive vice president of Doubleday publishers and a conference guest, says that Doubleday has been preparing for shifts in the industry for years. "We receive lists of all of our published material three times a year," he says. "We have an electronic book department that recommends which books will work best as electronic books and for which audience. About two-thirds of our books may make the transition to a digital format. The books that work best in digital format are science fiction and business books."

	Advertisement

The electronic book market is still small, Palgon says. He says sales figures in the United States do not exceed $12 million per annum.

"The problem is that electronic books do not offer a good reading experience," he says. "Even if you have a decent, large electronic reader, people work on computers all day long. Who wants to come home at night and get into bed with a computer? It doesn't work. Sony just came out with a new reader. Amazon is about to market a comparable reader. I think these readers are going to improve, but will not replace the book. You can hear music anywhere, but reading is a totally different experience."

Palgon maintains that publishers still ought to be attuned to technological changes. "Everyone must pay attention and be there when it happens, to take advantage of the opportunity, to transform to digital text, and to find a better market for our writers."

You are attuned to market scuttlebutt.

"We are also listening to consumers. It may sound stupid but we pay attention to sites like YouTube and social networks like MySpace. We try to get to people and understand what they need, how they act, what they're looking for. Even if we don't ultimately market electronic books to them, we can still persuade them to go into a store and buy a book. We have to get to people and find out where they are at now."

Yaakov Bar-Haim , who launched the www.esfarim.co.il Web site that has published 6,000 books in digital format, also attended the conference. These books were either in the public domain or Bar-Haim, a former Mossad official, received permission from their authors. Bar-Haim takes a small, thin, black object out of his pocket that looks like a book. It's the Sony Reader that he bought for $350; he added $30 for insurance coverage lasting two years.

The Sony Reader opens to reveal a small, convenient screen featuring Harlan Coben's latest novel. The instrument already contains 100 books, from Orwell's "1984" to Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code." Sony tried to learn from the mistakes they made when they released the eBook reader almost a decade ago: The new reader is thin and resembles a book. It has high resolution, large spaces between lines and large fonts. "I have a walking library in my pocket," Bar-Haim says, adding that he never gets tired of reading from the device.