The concept of e-books or electronic books has been around for a while, with the first gadgets being designed and manufactured as far back as the late 1930s. In 1971, Michael S. Hart created the first electronic document by writing the US declaration of independence. on your computer in text format so that the document could be viewed on other devices. E-book reading devices were intended to store technical or reference documents that would have become too heavy if printed as paper books for their intended users. During this time, most of the projects related to electronic books were carried out at the behest of government agencies. Document sharing became easier with Internet services introduced in the late 1980s and e-book readers became easier to read. In 1992, Sony introduced the ‘Data Discman’ that could read books stored on CDs. The cost of this device at the time was over $500 which was too high to be viable and it was discontinued within a couple of years.

E-book reading devices like Kindle, iBooks, Nook, Kobo, etc. it soon became popular as an alternative to paper books. The reasons for this change in habit are several, e-books are cheaper, extremely portable, customizable in terms of font and color, each device can store hundreds of titles/books, saving space, users can also index information, get details about other books by your favorite authors or download sample chapters. These devices are literally putting the library or the bookstore in our hands, and all this without leaving our armchair. From the long-term perspective, one can also argue about the environmental benefits of adopting e-books, as no paper or transportation is required for e-book publishing.

How have publishers coped with this onslaught of technology?
Publishers have been using digital technologies for writing, proofreading, graphics, and printing for quite some time. However, what has really changed in the last decade is the impact of these technologies on the way we communicate, promote, market, and especially the way we read digital content. The ubiquity of smartphones and the internet means we have easy access to our preferred choice of digital content.

In terms of cost comparison between e-books and print books, e-books are cheaper to publish. While we can consider author fees, marketing costs, and publisher staff salaries for both types of published material to be the same, e-books have negligible costs associated with retail and wholesale markups, printing/reprinting of copies, paper, storage, maintenance. and logistics.
A more recent development has been the rise of self-publishing, in which authors, rather than wait to be accepted by major publishers, self-publish their material through self-help portals.
With the digital age, publishers have had to adopt stricter policies against IP piracy caused by the indiscriminate sharing of digital content online. This has led publishers to organize author and book promotion workshops, conferences and webinars. The adoption of technology that studies data related to existing and potential customers, trends and preferences of the target audience is also playing a key role in the survival of publishers.

Total global publishing revenue stood at USD 122 billion in 2018 and was expected to reach USD 129 billion by 2023. Of this amount, the share of e-books is approximately USD 16 billion, which indicates that e-books still have a long way to go.