The world of book publishing is about to enter a period of massive change - and it's all due to the relatively recent growth in the popularity of both e-book readers and e-books. As a result of the growing popularity of e-book readers – such as the Amazon Kindle for example – e-books have very quickly been accepted by the public. It would be very easy to think of them as just another way to deliver written content. However, they may well be the largest single change to reading and publishing since Gutenberg's printing press.

Whilst that may sound a little melodramatic – the fact that e-books modify the traditional printing cycle is inescapable. In general, publishers release hardback editions followed, normally a few months to a year later, by the paperback version. It seems obvious that there is no valid reason why the e-book edition wouldn't be published at the same time as the hardback.

As e-books don’t use any paper, bindings or chemicals, and since they don’t require to be shipped - their selling price should be less than a conventional physical book. What this means is that the e-book version could be made available at a reduced price concurrently with the hardback book. That could have a serious impact on the profits of the big publishing houses – especially if you consider that the people who own e-book readers are likely to be fairly heavy readers.

There have already been some fairly heated discussions between Amazon – who wanted to price all e-books at $ 9.99 or less – and the publishing houses. At one point, all books by McMillan were withdrawn from the Amazon website. Things seem to have quietened down a little right now – but it looks likely that e-book prices will fall in future.

But there are some positive aspects for publishing firms. Obviously they will have reduced costs when selling e-books, so they should be able to find a way to profit. Alternative techniques for promoting books will also be opened up.

The Amazon library of Kindle books is the biggest by far available on the web at the moment. They have over 700,000 titles available – and there are a further 1.8 million out of copyright books which are available as free download from the Amazon Kindle store. Most of these were published before 1923, but there are other examples of modern books which can be downloaded at no cost.

You can often see publishers offering modern, sometimes recently published, books for free. This might be done for a short period only - say a fortnight or so. It allows them to showcase a new title or author and the increased number of downloads will help the book to move up the best sellers list. After it has climbed the rankings, publishers can start charging for it and benefit from the added publicity. You may also find the first book in a series being made available for free. The idea is clearly that readers enjoy the opening title and then go on to buy further titles in the series.

No doubt both of these promotional methods could have been employed with conventional books. However, it would be a lot more expensive, and therefore a more risky, undertaking. It seems clear that e-books are here to stay. Some publishers will try to defend their profits by slightly restrictive measures. Publishing houses which are able to adapt to the new digital publishing market conditions by offering value to both readers and authors will be the ones who survive (and thrive).

E-book sales during the first six months of 2010 were 183% higher than for the equivalent period in 2009, according to the Association of American Publishers. Forrester Research estimated that 11 million Americans would own a digital reading device by the end of September 2010.

It looks like e-book readers are actively encouraging people to read more than normal. Owners of the Amazon Kindle Reader are reported to buy 3.3 times more books with their Kindle than they did prior to having their reader.

There's no doubt that Amazon is the biggest e-book seller at the moment. They currently have 700,000 Kindle books for sale on their website – and there are a further 1.8 million books that can be downloaded for free due to the fact that they are now out of copyright. Amazon has, very cleverly, made a whole range of free apps available for a variety of different devices which lets users read Kindle books without a Kindle reader. This could conceivably impact upon Kindle reader hardware sales - but Amazon are clearly happy to accept this in order to secure sales of Kindle books.

The sales of e-book readers grew exponentially during 2009 - heavily influenced by the release of the Amazon Kindle 2.0 during February of that year. They are still a niche product and are just beginning to spread beyond early adopters. E-book reader price reductions, provoked by the launch of Apple's iPad which can be used as an e-book reader (among many other things), have certainly helped to make e-book readers more attractive to potential customers.

The Kindle became Amazon’s most gifted item ever over the 2009 festive season. Currently, it's the top selling item on the Amazon site - and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. The launch of the third generation Kindle at the start of August has been a good response to the iPad – and the Kindle is now selling faster than ever.

There can't be much doubt that the public has now gotten used to the idea of e-books and e-book readers. For the moment it seems that there is sufficient room in the market for both the specialist Kindle and the multi-functional iPad. Whether or not this situation will continue, or whether there will be a move to a more versatile type of e-book reader when Amazon eventually develop color e-ink technology displays, remains to be seen. However, the e-book genie looks to be well and truly out of the bottle and the future will only see more and more e-books being sold.

The Amazon Kindle reader has been a huge success for Amazon since it was first introduced in November of 2007. The updated Kindle 2.0, which launched in February 2009 was a driving force in the early development and growth of the e-book reader market and the latest third generation Kindle reader, launched at the tail end of July 2010, has been flying off the shelves.

Sales of the Kindle 3 have, according to Amazon, been higher than for any previous Kindle in the equivalent post launch period. It hardly conforms to the widely predicted death of the Kindle that many industry analysts predicted following the launch of the Apple iPad.

It’s a compliment to the Kindle - albeit a backhanded one - that, until now, its only realistic competition has come in the form of a multi-functional tablet computer which costs over three times the price of the Kindle. It seems reasonable to assume that were Amazon to treble the Kindle price, that some additional features could possibly be added.

However, that’s unlikely to happen. The Kindle is a specialist, intended to be the best e-book reader available on the market. The iPad is a versatile device. They are two entirely different devices which are aimed at different market sectors. Comparing the two devices point by point seems unlikely to yield any meaningful result.

Nevertheless, it’s interesting to note that there are now games being released for the Kindle. Obviously the iPad is the clear winner when it comes to playing games – the Kindle’s screen, whilst ideal as an e-book reader, is not suitable for anything which requires a fast refresh rate.

So it should come as no great surprise that the types of games appearing for the Kindle are mainly numbers games and word puzzles. At the moment, Scrabble is the best selling game for the Kindle. Crosswords, Sudoku and a variety of word puzzle games are also available. We’re not talking about Grand Theft Auto or Halo Reach here – but, without wanting to stereotype, it makes perfect sense that someone who reads a lot might also enjoy doing crosswords and solving word puzzles.

Scrabble for the Kindle is currently selling for $ 4.99 and is the best selling game for the Kindle at the moment. Most games available seem to range from $ 0.99 to $ 4.99. We can even see some free games becoming available, a trend which – if Kindle games follow the same pattern as Kindle Books - will probably grow in future.

Amazon recently announced that, in the 4 weeks following the launch of their third generation Kindle, more Kindle readers were sold than during the same time period following any earlier Kindle reader launch. The new, improved Kindle is not just in high demand - it is the fastest selling Kindle reader ever. True to form, Amazon didn’t reveal exactly how many Kindles were sold, but they did say that, since the launch of the latest Kindle, customers have ordered more Kindles on Amazon.com and the new Kindle store at Amazon.co.uk combined than any other product.

Amazon unveiled their new Kindle 3 at the end of July. The latest version packs the same 6" display into a new slimmed down design which is 21% smaller and 15% lighter. Page turns are 20% quicker and the memory size has been increased fro 2GB to 4GB - that's enough for 3,500 books. Battery life is now a month - with the Wi-Fi turned off - and the e-ink display has better contrast than previously.

An entry level Wi-Fi only Kindle has been introduced, aimed at customers who don't see the need for 3G. This sells for just $ 139, with the Wi-Fi plus 3G model on offer at $ 189. Those prices represent massive reductions on the previous $ 359 Kindle price. It's a clear sign that the e-book reader market is entering a new phase.

During the first half of 2010, Amazon sold 3 times as many Kindle books as they did during the same period of 2009. There are now more than 670,000 Kindle books available - not including the 1.8 million free titles available.

The Kindle remains the top selling product on Amazon's site. It is also the most gifted and most wished for product on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. With the high sales returns for the Kindle and the latest technical upgrades, it would be easy to overlook the significance of the opening of the UK Kindle store at Amazon.co.uk. The UK store has opened with 400,000 titles available and could increase international Kindle sales. If it proves to be successful - and why wouldn't it be - it seems probable that further "local" Kindle stores in France, Germany, Japan etc. - and any other country with its own independent Amazon website - might be opened.

Whilst Amazon still faces competition from the Apple iPad this doesn’t seem to concern them too much. At the moment, there is more than enough daylight between the prices of the Kindle and the iPad to make the Kindle the natural choice for anyone whose main interest is in reading books. As the e-book market matures, much more emphasis will be given to the sale of e-books as opposed to e-book readers. The fact that Kindle books are outselling iBooks by a ratio of sixty to one speaks volumes.

E-book readers have been very popular for some time now. It’s probably fair to suggest that the Amazon Kindle reader has been a very important factor in the expansion of the market for e-book readers. When it was originally launched in November of 2007, the Kindle, whilst not first to market, was a significant improvement on the other readers available at that time.

Amazon reinforced its market domination even further when it released the Kindle 2.0 in February of 2009. The large display Kindle DX was released in the summer of the same year and, in August of 2010, Amazon unveiled its upgraded Kindle 3.

The Kindle is Amazon's number one selling product. According to Amazon, they are now selling 180 Kindle books for every 100 hardback books. It can only be a matter of time before Kindle books start outselling paperbacks – and they will eventually outsell both paperbacks and hardbacks combined.

It looks like e-book readers and e-books are here to stay. The future of reading appears to be digital. Some book lovers may have an attachment to physical books, which is understandable of course. Some people are unsure as to whether or not an e-book reader would be a good option for them. Some book lovers fear that they will miss the feel, and even the smell, of a real book. Others wonder if the display will be okay to read, or if the page turns will annoy them and spoil their enjoyment.

It can be hard to judge. It may soon be available in selected retails stores but, for the moment, the main outlet for the Amazon Kindle is online, so - unless you know someone who owns one – it can be hard to see it working in order to form an opinion. There are plenty of reviews online – but many of these tend to focus on the more technical aspects rather than the actual user experience. Most first time buyers will be more interested to know how an e-book reader compares to reading a traditional book than how it compares to other available e-book readers.

So, if you're wondering whether or not an e-book reader would be right for you, here are a few points to consider

1. Because they are small and lightweight, e-book readers are ideal for one handed operation. This means that reading on a crowded train, bus or plane is easy - as is reading propped up in bed or lounging on the sofa.

2. The Kindle's e-ink display is a lot better to read on than a back-lit computer screen. It genuinely is like reading text printed on paper - albeit the background is usually a light grey rather than white.

3. During page turns, there will be a momentary flicker. The display momentarily goes blank. Whilst you will be aware of this at first, after using your reader for one or two hours, you won't notice it at all.

4. E-book don't use paper, ink or bindings - so they cost less than conventional books. They also don't require any road transportation.

5. As e-books use no paper, ink or bindings - and because there's no physical product to be delivered - they are much more environmentally friendly than printed books.

6. Amazon's Kindle store has in excess of 670,000 titles available for you to choose from. It also has in excess of 1.8 million out of copyright Kindle books available for free. If you read one book each week. your reader could pay for itself in just a few months.

7. A battery life of three to four weeks is achievable - with the Wi-Fi turned off.

8. Downloading Kindle books is a breeze. It can typically be done in well under 60 seconds. No need to worry if you finish your book when the shops are shut, you can buy and download a new book any time you like. You need never be stuck without something to read again.

9. You can carry your own small library with you wherever you go. It's ideal if you spend a lot of time travelling.

10. You can download the first chapter of Kindle books for free - so you'll be able to tell if you like a book before you buy it.

A recent survey found that four out of five American e-book reader owners preferred reading e-books to traditional books. It's no great surprise when you look at the list of benefits above. If you enjoy reading, then Amazon's Kindle could well prove to be the perfect gadget for you.