The Future: Ebooks & Poetry Part 1

E-Books, everyone knows what they are nowadays, in 2011. And yet, publishers are apparently still running around wondering what to do. They are undeniably a serious part of the modern book market; the Association of American Publishers (AAP) have some very interesting figures: in December alone (of 2010) ebook sales have shown a 172.4% growth over 2009, whilst hardcover sales have dropped 24%. They also predict that by 2012, ebooks will make up to $6 billion of a $20 billion annual book market. (from http://www.publishers.org/).

So it is obvious that ebooks are a growing phenomenon, only set to get bigger. They are here to stay, and why not? They are the perfect format for the 21^st Century reader; simple, user-friendly technology with instant access to millions of books and information? Who wouldn’t want that? And at the moment, ebooks are cheaper than print with a large selection of classics being presented for free.

But how does this fit into poetry? Well, Ebook technology gives publishers the opportunity they’ve been looking for to ‘revamp’ poetry – even the classics. In my opinion, an ebook should offer something more than the print version, and with a little bit of thought, ebook poetry can be amazing.

On an educational level, an ebook poetry anthology is perfect. It could have critical essays and analysis attached; it could have biographies, pictures, videos or even links to pertinent online discussions. It starts making classroom teaching a blessing. Projecting an annotated poem, or e-mail an annotated poem to your class is great and allows everyone to get involved.

For students, ebook poetry just makes it easier. They can search for words within Paradise Lost for instance, to make their essay about ‘Hell’ that little bit easier. They can pull up a dictionary and quickly find out the meaning of Milton’s archaic language, they could even browse Gustav Dore’s engravings side-by-side the text.

Thus far, I have not seen a poetry ebook or app with any thought gone into it whatsoever. In order to capture the younger, ebook generation, publishers have to offer customers something new and exciting, and not suffice with selling an ancient book to customers that already have it in print.