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  3. It’s a parlor game in publishing circles to speculate how long it will take before e-books constitute a majority of the industry

It’s a parlor game in publishing circles to speculate how long it will take before e-books constitute a majority of the industry

admin2013-10-08  58
问题     It’s a parlor game in publishing circles to speculate how long it will take before e-books constitute a majority of the industry’s sales in the US. But no one doubts that that is where the market is headed. Last week, the Association of American Publishers announced that in January, for the first time, monthly e-book sales had overtaken hard covers. Paperbacks remain in the lead, for now.
    E-books are by far the fastest-growing segment of the otherwise sluggish(反应迟缓的), recession-plagued publishing business. In 2010 e-book sales jumped 164%, to $441 million. "The acceleration has been quick and dramatic, and in some ways the uptake may get faster if physical outlets for books, like Borders stores, disappear faster than expected," says Michael Cader, founder and editor of trade e-newsletter Publishers Lunch.
    After Borders, the second largest bookstore chain in the country, declared bankruptcy last month, the question arose as to whether the popularity of e-books had caused its demise. While industry experts say it was only part of the reason for the Ann Arbor, Mich. -based chain’s collapse, its poor showing in the e-book arena certainly accelerated the former retailing powerhouse’s fall. In contrast, rival Barnes & Noble sells its own popular e-reader, the Nook, and has long maintained B&N. com, which features a vibrant store that has seen its e-book sales take off. Still, both chains are light-years behind Amazon, creator of the Kindle, by far the best-selling e-reader in the market.
    Despite the growing popularity of e-books, they pose a challenge for publishers. The industry still makes over 90% of its revenue from print. That means major publishers like Random House have had to maintain their print business while at the same time growing their digital side. "The trick is not that the digital isn’t profitable," says Cader. "Digital at its current level makes few or none of the costs of running a print business go away." That means big warehouses, broad sales forces and extensive systems. The hope, of course, is that in time, digital will be cheaper to produce, but currently, publishers face a big expense in converting to digital. What’s more, publishing has always been based on economies of scale, and with a reduction of the number of paper books, printing is becoming more expensive.
    So are print books going to disappear? That’s not in the cards—at least not yet, say experts. "Formats to which lots of people are attached often take a longer time to go away," says Cader. He compares publishing to the music business, in which CD sales have dropped significantly but not ended. And books were around a long time before CDs. Also, certain genres aren’t practical as e-books. "It doesn’t make sense yet for digital cookbooks, travel books, information books and textbooks," says McQuivey.
What poses a challenge for publishers though e-books are becoming more popular?
选项 A、The shortage of technical support.
B、The big expense in converting to digital.
C、The little profit obtained from e-books.
D、The difficulty of market evaluation.
答案B
解析 事实细节题。第四段主要论述电子书对出版商提出的挑战。该段倒数第二句提到，出版商希望将来生产数字图书的成本会降低，但是目前出版商在转向数字图书的过程中面临一笔巨大的花费。可见出版商所面临的挑战是向电子书转化所需要的一大笔费用，因此答案为B)。
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