Around 11% of respondents to a Zogby International online survey on book reading and buying habits said that they’d be comfortable reading a book online, using an ebook reader, or on a pda.  While not a large number, it’s surprising to us that it’s over 10%, indicating that barriers to reading long form content on electronic devices may be dropping.  This is potentially bad news for retailers of printed material on two fronts.  First, sales made online bypass the brick and mortar retailer, going directly from publisher or online retailer sites to the consumer.  And second, and perhaps more importantly, if objections to reading long-form content on a screen fade, the potential for filesharing of illegal scans increases, creating free competition for a medium long thought to be relatively immune from filesharing woes. 

Both comics (including “scanlations” of manga) and games are subject to illegal filesharing.  In one recent high profile example, the eagerly awaited Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition books hit filesharing sites before their street date (see “D&D 4E Out Early”).   

There’s no data from a similar survey in the past to which the 11% that would read books on screens can be compared, so it’s impossible to say how fast it’s growing.  But it’s undoubtedly safe to say that it’s a growth rate that could have a significant impact on sales of physical products within the next five years. 

Economist Paul Krugman, writing in the New York Times last Friday, discussed the buzz at Book Expo America about the e-book (specifically Amazon’s Kindle), and foresaw a situation in which much written content was available free, or very close to it, and writers made money from ticket sales to author readings and other ancillary revenue streams.  This is based on the Grateful Dead model, in which free distribution of recordings of the band was not discouraged, and the band made money through sales of concert tickets and merchandise.  As Krugman put it, “It won’t all happen immediately.  But in the long run, we are all the Grateful Dead.”

The Zogby survey was the same one in which 8% of the respondents bought graphic novels online (see “Graphic Novels Well Represented”).