Exploratory Essay

Introduction

In the past, the purpose of a book was to compile information or acts as a medium to spread teachings or a message from one person to another. Since it is difficult for people to keep all the information in their heads, messages are written on natural materials such as stone tablets, bone and wood, but these materials proves to be difficult to write on and seemed impractical. As the supply of papyrus starts to run out, parchment was commonly used to write on until the Chinese, during the Han Dynasty, invented a new writing material widely used until now, which is paper. Due to it’s light weight and it’s ease to write on, paper is now the common writing material used that can be compiled into a book which makes it easier to distribute

The Digital Age: The new way of reading

When eBooks are first introduced to the market, it creates a frenzy that it will revolutionised the way books are being read and distributed forever as said by Jeff Gomez in his book titled Print is Dead - Books in Our Digital

(2008). Print is dead. London: Macmillan. p. 116.

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“You can put thousands of books in your digital reader and take it on a vacation with you.”3

With such ease to carry thousands of digital books in a single device, eBooks would certainly be the choice for most voracious readers. Apart from it’s convenience, eBooks are sold at a much cheaper rate than hardcopies4. With the technology equipped in the eBook that enables readers to write on it just like how they could on a hardcopy, eBooks still provides the same flexibility as of a printed book.5

Is Print really dead?

Like the hardcopies, there are also drawbacks for their digital successors. There some are cases where the digital books vanished in thin air due to a technical fault, books in PDF formats can be downloaded illegally which leads publishers facing a financial turmoil and unlike hardcopies, the mediums where you read your books digitally, operates on battery power which will eventually run out.6

The second argument about eBooks is that, since they are sold at a cheaper price, are they really cheap to produce considering they do not need raw materials and printing to manufacture neither do they need to be shipped? According to Michael Hyatt in his online article7, publishers have to incur at least three new costs when publishing an eBook which