When Amazon launched the Kindle, in 2007, the death of the printed book was confidently predicted. But while e-books make up a significant share of the market—between 20 and 25 per cent—sales slowed sharply in 2015. In the US, the number of people reading books primarily on e-readers fell from 50 per cent three years ago to 32 per cent now. Publishers such as Simon & Schuster and Hachette have been investing heavily in warehouses and book distribution depots.

The pattern has been repeated in Britain. Waterstones, once under serious threat of closure, has returned to profit. Overall sales of paperbacks and hardbacks rose 3 per cent in the first half of 2015. Publishers have started to create books that are also beautiful, and the  market is growing for special editions you can show off on your bookshelf.

So is this the end of the e-book? Not quite. Fans of crime and romance—who in the past would have bought throwaway paperbacks—still much prefer e-books. Sales of the Kindle are down but you can easily download books from the Kindle or iBooks app on your tablet or smartphone. Holiday reading on your device is now commonplace. But readers saturated with screen-time are undoubtedly rediscovering the pleasures of the printed page. (based on a Prospect magazine article, Big Ideas  of 2016, Dec 2015)

One of the benefits of the digital age is that authoring a book has never been easier.  I recently published a small volume of rhymed verse, just for friends and family.  The copy editing, the design and illustration on the front and back pages all take time, but once the overall design of the book is done the printing takes a matter of a few days, and, bingo!, you not only have your book, advertised on Amazon as well. One can argue, justifiably, that we are overloaded with information and books to read, and self-publishing is not generally a good way to make an income. The 80/20 principle applies. On the other hand it is a wonderful encouragement to put your ideas into print with relatively little time and expense.