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UTAH COUNTY -- Some bookstore managers say e-book sales are growing quickly, but they're still just a very small portion of overall sales.
UVU Bookstore Curriculum Materials Manager David Morris says, "Right now, it's probably about less than five percent of our [overall] sales."
Morris says there may be a few different reasons for this. For starters, students are still used to textbooks. Also, not only can you not sell back an e-book, but you don't even get to keep many of them after you buy them.
"Once you've downloaded it and used it, it's a one-time use for 180 days. After that, that's it," Morris explains.
But Morris says he thinks e-books will become a lot more popular one day. BYU Bookstore Director Roger Reynolds agrees, but he thinks e-books will have to overcome certain obstacles. Reynolds says one big problem with e-books is that they look just like regular books.
"Students are looking for some kind of delivery of content where it's more robust than words on a page," he says.
Reynolds thinks if e-books had more links to websites or demonstrative videos, then they would really take off. But this may be more trouble than it's worth for publishers. Companies that want their books to be accessible on the Apple iPad and the Amazon Kindle have to format their books in two separate formats.
"The publisher is not willing at this point to invest all that money into a lower form of financial return on their investment," Reynolds says.
For now, e-books are about 40 cheaper than regular textbooks, and Reynolds thinks that's more expensive than some people may expect.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
