Coming soon to your e-reader, more specialized, esoteric material, courtesy of small publishers. Are you a fan of digital readers, but have been frustrated by the limited variety of contemporary reading material? A wide range of copyright free material is accessible via project Gutenberg and other digital libraries, but contemporary copyrighted material has been limited to mainly mainstream titles, made available by large publishers that could afford to spend money on digital resources.

An agreement between Perseus Books Group and several technology companies may soon lead to a welcome change.  It will make digital publishing technology available to small publishers with limited budgets who could not otherwise afford it.  Hopefully, this will increase sales not only of electronic files meant for digital media readers, but also of the hard copy books, as it will enable the “look inside the book” technology used by major online booksellers.   (Online shoppers are more likely to purchase a book once they have seen a sample of its content.)  The increased digital accessibility of books from smaller publishers will be good not only for those publishers, but also good for the publishing business,  and good for readers.

For recent posts on digital readers, see

• The future of the book?
• The future of the book? Mimicking a classic.
• The Future of the newspaper: Read & Go?