As an agency, we are in touch with many new ideas and technological advancements in the publishing world. One in particular is electronic publishing—a subject we would like to address here.

We’ve all heard of books and other material being downloaded through the Internet. However, who wants to read a book on a monitor or print it out at a cost which parallels that of a finished book? Not many, I’ll bet. But, now think of this. You have an E-book—an electronic reader which is a book-sized portfolio that is never disposed of or given to friends or charities or loaned out. It has a flat back-lighted liquid crystal screen that far exceeds the readability of printed-paper and can be read anywhere on battery power or by plugging in. On airplanes, in bed, or at the beach, your favorite author or novel is a companion. A small quarter-sized disk can store up to ten novel-length works and be used for ten hours before recharging. You need not be computer literate or even have to own a computer. It’s easier than a VCR. You merely push a button to flash from page to page.

Now that you have your permanent book, this is your vehicle for reading novels, technical manuals, or any material that has ever been printed. You may peruse the works available on the publisher’s website or browse your local bookstore if you wish. The disk may be purchased at the store or downloaded directly to you. The publisher will download your ordered novel through phone or cable line in several minutes and bill you a nominal charge.

The book may have musical background or pictures to illustrate scenes being depicted in text. There is almost no limit of the resources this book is capable of performing.

Going one step beyond, think of this. Your newspaper could be delivered to you electronically. As you sleep, your local paper will be downloaded into your receiving unit and onto a quarter-sized disk. In the morning, you remove this disk from your receiver and insert it into your E-book. It will then display the news for you—headlines, sports, business, and weather—all at the touch of a button. Nothing to dispose of, no soggy papers left under your lawn sprinklers or in the rain or snow, no delivery trucks, no lost quarters in the vending machines, etc.

Landfills will be less encumbered and so many trees will be saved. Environmentalists will applaud, but your local newspaper delivery person will have to learn a new job. Less pollution will result in taking advantage of our existing technology for our overall betterment.

Publishers will benefit by no longer having to be concerned with printing schedules, overruns, and the dreaded remainders. The need for distributors, warehousing, and shipping also will be eliminated thereby further reducing costs. The expense of downloading a book to a purchaser is minimal, thereby being very profitable to the publisher. The buyer gains as well from the enormously reduced costs and everyone benefits.

The character of bookstores will change as well—transformed from a warehouse to a display area selling disks for E-books or printing a book while you wait on a high-speed printer. We all enjoy browsing and leafing through books, but the actual sale will be the size of a quarter and transforming a reader’s bookshelf from an entire wall to the size of a deck of cards.

One problem exists that we have no answer for—how to house-train your dog without newspaper.