• by Masha Geller , May 31, 2001

It looks like the world of book publishing, much like the advertising industry, is ready to admit that the Net is not going to change the world as quickly as everyone had hyped.

Michael Powell, owner of Powell's Books in Portland, one of the country's most prominent book sellers, laughed when reminded that last year, he predicted electronic publishing was coming "at lightning speed."

"Did I say that? I must have had a couple of martinis," he said this weekend at the publishing industry's annual national convention BookExpo America in Chicago.

At this year's show, there's a general sense that e-commerce will likely complement, rather than replace, the paper kind. To draw a parallel, if you attended any advertising trade shows in the past six months, you've heard that very sentiment expressed about online and offline advertising.

That's not to say the publishing industry has given up on the online market. According to Ipsos-NPD, an Illinois-based research group, the Internet share of adult book purchases jumped from 1.9% in 1998 to 5.4% last year. In 2,000, online book buying increased to 7%.

"I think there's a far more realistic understanding of what the Internet does for book selling," said Oren Teicher, chief operating officer of the American Booksellers Association, which represents thousands of independent retailers.

"Those who looked at the Internet as the solution to everyone's problems have to understand that e-commerce is like adding an audio section to your store. It's just another piece of your business."

Here's to reality!

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