But I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all solution; the shape an electronic Tom Clancy-esque novel might take would be very different from a wired Zadie Smith. An Anne Applebaum history shouldn’t be the same as a Peter Ackroyd biograpy. And there, I think the onus is on the writer as much as the publisher, something many ebook zealots shaking their fists at publishers forget… It’s not about an app alone. The creation must work within and with the medium. Otherwise, taking a book into the electronic realm is not unlike Turner colourising old films — it’s the publisher forcing a new (and incompatible) technology on something that was meant to be experienced in a different way.

When someone develops a killer app that shifts the textbook toward a digital model that embraces mobility and value-added features (for one small example…online connectivity for footnote expansion and research?), and isn’t just one-way print on electronic page (a la most current ebook formats), then the entire paradigm will shift.

You can bet that if a savvy big publisher doesn’t do it, a savvy tech company will, and market share will be lost.

@Robert — pleasing your current customer instead of spending money to please your future customer is the innovator’s dilemma. That makes things Darwinian but I hope artistry will thrive in both extremes — both in the old medium and the new ones.

And, as someone who loves captial-b books, I worry about the shift to the electronic, particularly for non-fiction. Will artistry become less relevant as books become information?