Publisher's Synopsis
Books are the major factor in the intellectual development of a nation. Historically, books have been the major means of communication of new thoughts in times where the majority of the people had little opportunity to go to the theater and electronic entertainment was not yet invented. The influence of authors has certainly been recognized, frequently by kings and almost invariably by dictators. The traditional book distribution system was simple and authors and publishers are hub of production system which is distributed by distributors and points of sale are bookstores and libraries. However, with the development of science and technology especially the electronic media, the whole picture has changed and electronic books distributed by thousands of consumers communication systems has occupied a key role in distribution of book. The production structure and cost of production of these books are totally different from the traditional print book system. Books eventually will become secondary tools in academia, usurped by electronic media. Textbooks will be replaced by multimedia instructional technologies incorporating pictures, symbols and video clips. Further, commercial firms will be the primary providers of the new electronic curriculum, not today's nonprofit colleges and universities. In this book, an endeavor has been made to discuss the trend and projection of global book market with special reference to evidences from developing countries of the world.
