Writers Thought for Today

The technological elephant is finally welcome in the living room of the American publishing industry.

As the trade show BookExpo America revved up its new abbreviated version here today, the digital publishing industry was given a prominent place at the annual gathering of one of the country's most traditional businesses -- the ink and paper world of book publishing. On today's agenda was the International Digital Publishers Forum. Monday was devoted to the emerging do-it-yourself online book market.

"The first wave of technology is here and the pace of change is accelerating," said Jonathan Galassi, head of the old-school publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He moderated a morning panel of seven people representing publishers, booksellers, agents and authors called "The Value of the Book."

"Publishers and writers must work together to exploit this new media."

He meant the electronic book reader, from Kindle to the Sony Reader to the iPad from Apple, devices that allow owners to buy digital texts via the Internet, then display these e-books in a readable format. Mr. Galassi estimated that about 10 percent of books sold now are in digital form.

Speaking for independent booksellers was Oren Teicher, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, a cosponsor of BEA. The independents' number has been shrinking for nearly 25 years in the face of superstore chains and online sellers such as Amazon, owner of the Kindle.

Mr. Teicher urged the panel to "forget about format and focus on content that meets the customers' needs. Booksellers need to be "format neutral," offering both print and digital copies of books.

"Print books are still 90 percent of the market, so don't expect the e-book to bring savings yet," cautioned David Shanks, CEO of Penguin Books. We still need warehouses and trucks and somebody to turn on the lights. "Certainly, there will be savings down the road, but not very soon."