ultralaser

Amazon bundles print and e-books

www.bbc.co.uk

“‘The problem with digital content, as people are just twigging, is that you don’t own it, you just license it - you’re renting it effectively,’ said Neill Denny, an independent book industry commentator.

'So, to have both a physical copy and an ebook is quite an attractive proposition. And weirdly it might help print, because by bundling the content it locks the analogue to the successful digital model in a way that publishers have been struggling to find.'

However, Philip Jones, editor of trade publication the Bookseller magazine, was less enthusiastic.

'I'm sceptical about whether the reader actually wants it,' he told the BBC.

'As far as I can tell most people read in one format, so they choose print or they choose digital and it's quite rare that they read both.

'However, I can see there would be advantages for students or for people who have particularly weighty hardbacks that they'd like to read in print form at home and then as an e-book on the road.'”