Is the end Nigh?

…for books? Seth Godin, author of multiple bestselling marketing books recently announced that Linchpin was his last book that he is going to publish. Actually he said it was the last book he is going to publish in a “traditional” format (i.e. a paper book). He is still writing and writing books – just not printed material. In fact he’s already published a digital workbook…

So with this announcement and the gaining popularity of the Kindle and iPad, how long before the rest of the book industry catches on to this distribution model? It took the music industry way too long to realize mp3′s could be beneficial (they still haven’t fully adopted it.)

Even better, here are my top 5 reasons why traditional books should convert to the digital format:

1. College students/high school students/pre-school students etc.. could all get/buy a kindle or digital reader and download their required books instead of carrying around the 10-20 pounds of books that they currently have to use for class.

2. You would always have access to every book in the world or at least what is available)…talk about variety!

3. The Kindle and like devices make reading fun again. Lets face it, the library is not a cool or even sexy place. Most youths sneek in and sneek out if they go at all (with the exception of most college students who need a place to study). But Amazon? thats sexy, that’s the cool place where everyone is already hanging out, combined with social media, reading might actually be cool

4. No more waiting for that book you’ve been anticipating to come out in paperback. How many times are you dying to read a book but its only out in Hard Cover and you refuse to pay those prices? It’s happened to me more than once. The digital version comes out at the same time and its cheaper!

5. Cause it’s awesome! Isn’t that reason enough?

And to all the naysayers out there thinking about the desire to collect a personal library, putting them on display…well, people used to do that with CD’s and DVD’s but now you’d be hard pressed to find someone willing to trade in their iTunes account for their old jewel cases. I say bring on the Kindle’s, Nook’s and iPads. Embrace the technology and look towards the future.

Go buy a Kindle…I just did! (I opted for the wi-fi version…can’t beat it!)