In an increasingly fast-paced world it becomes more and more fascinating to me to follow the fortunes and advances of the ebook.  We seem to be demanding faster and easier access to almost everything and the ebook is no exception.  This is having a significant impact on the printing and publishing industry.  Places like Barnes & Noble, Borders etc. have probably had many a serious discussion around the board room tables before a difficult decision is made to offer more of their books online.

What I really don’t understand is why we keep getting yet another digital format to go with yet another reader.  It is particularly interesting when you read the news and the statistics on sales.  Amazon.com reported that sales of ebooks outnumbered sales of hardcover books over the second quarter by 40%.  They didn’t outsell paperbacks but are catching up fast.  The bulk of these would be PDF or ePub format since they have been around since the first Kindle was introduced and way before that in the case of PDF.

I have been asked why I use a nom de plume for this site on many occasions.  In the first place I guess I should reference Wikipedia for a definition.

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author’s name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her writings, or for any of a number of reasons related to the marketing or aesthetic presentation of the work. The author’s name may be known only to the publisher, or may come to be common knowledge.

And that actually describes fairly well the why.