E-Book Sales On The Rise

WASHINGTON - Libraries and bookstores could become a thing of the past. Sales of electronic books have taken off. Amazon.com, the nation's largest bookseller now says it sells more e-books than hardbacks.

That does not bode well for places like Kramerbooks in Washington D.C., which keeps good old fashioned books on its shelf. No e-books here and it recently had a sign in the front window that said "use your Kindle at your own risk."

Alex Asancheyev, manager of the bookstore said "occasionally we'll see people shuffling through the store looking at our selection of books in order to choose what they want to download on their Kindle."

The Kindle, Amazon.com's e-reader, has been around less than three years but already the company says sales of its e-books are quickly outpacing hard covers in the past month by nearly two-to-one.

"I think the future is here and e-books are it," said Megan McArdle, business and economics editor for "The Atlantic."

McArdle has an iPad and a Kindle. She showed us the iPad with a Kindle application. It has about 40 books. She says her Kindle has about two hundred books. It took her just a few minutes to buy and download a new book from Amazon.com.

E-books account for less than 10 percent of the nearly $200 million book publishing market, but sales have jumped more than 200 percent year to date. In just a few years, e-books have become a mass phenomenon, something that normally takes decades. You can now read books on your computer, your phone or an e-reader.

"Physically, book stores may not be with us forever and for a lot of us, that's pretty sad," said McArdle.

Amazon.com says sales of its Kindle tripled after it lowered the price from $259 to $189, which is driving e-book sales and that is where experts say book retailers stand to make the most money.

Traditional book readers say using an e-book is like the difference between going to the movies and renting one at home. Both are different experiences.

"I want to turn the page," said Constance Peterson-Miller.

She says she will never buy an e-reader and prefers a real book, passed down generations like her grandparents did.

"I love to feel the pages and I especially enjoyed the books that were crackled with age," she said.

Yet the convenience of an e-reader, affordability and the ability to buy a book on the spot is enticing more and more people to abandon paper books.

"I thought about it," said Rabita Aziz. "When the day comes, I may just have to go out and buy a reader."

Kramerbooks does not see an end to traditional books.

"This book store's been around a long time," said Asancheyev.

The store will adapt to e-books if needed but believes there is room for both.