Are E-Books Finally Worth Your Money?

(MoneyWatch)  Holiday shoppers looking to buy books as gifts will need to make a critical decision before they get to a mall cashier bagging their purchase: Paper or microchip?

Electronic-reading devices like Amazon's Kindle, referred to as "e-readers," are expected to see a surge in sales thanks to price reductions, growing consumer acceptance and improved distribution. The publishing, retailing and technology industries, meanwhile, are all grappling with the impact of the change.

• Book publishers worldwide convening next week at the Frankfurt Book Fair will confront the threat posed to their trade by electronic distribution, which already has significantly transformed the recorded-music and newspaper industries;
• Best Buy, unsure exactly where to display this e-readers, for now at least will stock them in a novelty-goods section that will include digital pens, electronic Rubik's Cubes and Sharper Image products.
• To compete with rival Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble plans to sell its own color e-reader that will be more like a netbook than the Kindle, and sell e-books on its Web site across varied formats, enabling buyers to read e-books on iPhones and Blackberries and on PCs.
• Computer maker Asus is said to be developing a dual-screened reader that will open like book with a retail price target of $165, less than the Kindle's $259 price-tag and Sony's lowest-cost Reader at $199.

Unlike digital music, to which consumers are still in the process of gravitating after nearly a decade, e-readers are expected to gain faster adoption due to greater convenience, cost savings and environmental friendliness.

In terms of convenience, e-readers can hold several hundred to 1,000 books or more. That puts more titles at readers' fingertips than the total stored in 10 to 20 boxes of meant-to-be-read books long-buried in the corner of one's attic or garage.

E-readers do require an upfront cost, but for frequent book buyers, that can be recouped quickly. Sellers of electronic-book downloads are charging about $10 for titles that might cost $25 or more in newly released hardcover versions.

And while e-readers aren't widely promoted yet for environmental friendliness due to the impact in producing and disposing of them, research by the Cleantech Group found carbon emissions from e-books are far lower than traditional book publishing.

As much as e-readers are still in the early-adoption phase, this holiday season may be their breakout period.