Moving Books to a Digital Format

• The publishing industry might move most of the books to a digital format to save money. Publishing companies might still use paper, but only for best-sellers, appealing to those who like the look and feel of a real book. People will get the rest of the books through various devices like eReaders and other devices. As of 2011, some publishing companies, such as Warner Books, already have e-publishing departments.
  
  

More Fee-Based Access

• Scientific, technical and medical e-publishers sometimes offer free online access to many of their medical journals, making this information available worldwide. However, some magazines, such as the "Financial Times," are moving some of their website content to a fee model, hoping that the remaining free content will attract advertisers, giving them ad revenue. They hope the fee-based content will earn them revenue from researchers and analysts willing to pay the fee. E-publishers may continue to charge more for content, since they have a hard time making money through other means, such as the advertisement or donation model.
  
  

Changing Publisher-Retailer Relationships

• Apple released a tablet known as the iPad, which is a flat computer operated by a touchscreen, often with a digital pen instead of a keyboard. "The New York Times" pointed out that Apple will use the tablet to allow publishing companies to offer news and books while also giving the companies a way to charge for this content. Apple planned to provide e-books from six major publishers in 2010. They will maintain possession of the book and pay a commission to any company authorized to sell it. Under the wholesale model of book selling, the publishing company sets the wholesale price and the sales partners can discount books however they want. The e-publishing industry might fully scrap this model for an agency model, where the publisher decides the price and the seller cannot discount it.
  
  

More Self-Publishing

• E-publishing may help writers earn more money. Those who offer the e-books typically have less overhead, allowing them to split more of the revenue with the writers. In addition, sellers can sell the e-books for less money, resulting in more customers. E-publishing provides writers with more opportunities to self-publish because the publishing costs are more affordable. Therefore, more authors may choose to self-publish their works. However, this can also saturate the market with books, making this industry less profitable.
  
  

More Romance Books

• Romance and e-publishing industry go hand-in-hand because romance readers buy novels at great volume and e-books allow readers to easily buy large quantities of romance novels. In 2003, Tina Engler wrote an erotic novel called "Ellora's Cave." This book earned $1.2 million in revenue. This led to a growth in the erotic romance publishing industry in e-books, making erotic publishing one of the dominant e-book genres that will likely continue to grow.