The Rapturous Reader  

In January, 2008 I posed the following questions during a roundtable discussion: 

"Would you read a book on a electronic reading device like Amazon's Kindle?"
"Why/why not?"

Now, six months later I examine the impact electronic reading devices have had on African American readers.  Here are some facts from Bloomberg.com (July10,Gilliam Wee):

• By 2010, Amazon may get 3 percent, or $741 million, of revenue from sales of the paperback-sized reader and digital books, according to Citigroup Inc. analyst Mark Mahaney, a Kindle user. That's up from this year's 0.3 percent, or $60 million, he said.

The Web retailer cut the price of the Kindle, which Newsweek magazine called the iPod of books, to $359 from $399 in May. Amazon initially sold out of the white, 7.5-by-5.3 inch (19.5-by-13.5 centimeter) reader within five and a half hours of its November release, Freed said.

Sales of e-books may rise 30 percent annually to $1.3 billion, or 5 percent of U.S. consumer book spending, in 2012, from $340 million, or 1.5 percent of the market, in 2007, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. The Kindle and the competing $299.99 Sony Reader will boost growth, which is being fed by digital offerings from publishers such as Bertelsmann AG's Random House and CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster units, PricewaterhouseCoopers said.
    

Have your reading habits changed as a result of electronic reading devices?  Are the books you read available in Kindle editions?  African American authors, are Kindle editions of your book available?  Have your sales and profits increased?

Let's chat!