Besides the publishers, distributors and readership we should also not forget about the authors who have no idea what they are facing, said Eszter Gyurica. What is more, a question about e-book readers would also take them by surprise because they have not yet assessed whether this discussion would be relevant in Hungary. Reacting to this statement, dr Balázs Bodó reported on his own experiences as an author when he was experimenting with the free downloadable version of his own writings. Some of his long-time readers wrote him that at first they were willing to buy his digital texts, but as the hardly user-friendly program got on top of them they rather downloaded the pirate version.

It’s important to highlight that the new technology also differs in the way of use. When it comes to digital documents – as it can be observed on the internet – people tend to read shorter articles, and more casually. Thus publishing a booklet as an e-book is imaginable, while it occurs more rarely in print. The distributors used to toy with the idea of attaching additional chapters or multimedia contents to the printed work but on one hand it demands a vast amount of energy and on the other hand – according to Eszter Gyuricza – it is unrealistic in Hungary yet.

As was showed by the improvised public opinion poll conducted by Bodó on-the-spot, voting by a show of hands, it is worth for distributors considering cooperation with higher education. Students have to read an awful lot of pages which costs a fortune if printed, and reading on the screen is extremely tiring for the eyes, so the majority would be willing to invest in an e-book reader to a limit of 10-20,000 forints (around 35-65 euros).

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It turned out from another public opinion poll of Bodó that our parents’ books and records had a great impression on our childhood. But then, what are we going to say to our own children? Shall they browse the folders of our computer or shall they try to run our long broken e-book reader? We may have the impression that the experience fades away or at least it does not remain the same. How could we maintain the existence of our old values then? What is going to happen with the tradition of passing on books to the next generation?

The role of publishers, distributors and authors on the book market is a vital question for the future. The manufacturer of the popular Kindle e-book reader, Amazon has already started negotiations with the authors about circumventing publishers in order to give the right for distribution to the authors. Many of them will take the advantage of this for sure. At the same time some other authors still need the publisher’s pat on the back. It is only posterity that can judge which of them will be more successful.

Written by: Dorottya Egres
English translation: Eszter Kiss
Photos: ceslava.com, ethermoon FlickR page