Amazon announced the release of their 2nd generation eReader - the Kindle, yesterday. It boasts a sleeker shell and better functioning controls, but that, fellow writers, is not the truly big news of the day.
  
The really big news was that Bezos and company were planning on getting ebooks from Amazon to smartphones and other devices. That’s a sea change on the epublishing front. Yes, these times they are a changing.
 
I don’t see bazillions of Kindles sold, but there are bazillions of customers who currently use Amazon as their bookstore. Getting ebooks out to every capable machine is just a natural evolution of the market.
  
If you don’t believe it, go buy some music. Records and cassette tapes basically no longer exist except for collectors and aficionados. CD’s are fading fast. There’s an entire generation who purchase music online. That same generation has the expectation of instant access. And that’s where Amazon is headed.
  
That doesn’t mean that books are dead. Books don’t need batteries, a cellular connection, and can even be dropped. They are however, only one delivery mechanism in the publishing industry. Amazon is gunning to deliver more.
  
Electronic books currently occupy a whopping 1% of publishing, but that will change greatly over then next decade. For we writers, that means a wider playing field, but one that will be crowded with a lot more wannabees and bad lit. Then there’s the whole issue of illicit copying of our work. Our challenge will be to connect with best reputable, conventional/electronic publishers that will depict our writing in the best possible light and protect it at the same time. Fun… fun… fun…
  
While the traditional publishing market is in trouble these days, epublishing represents a new business model and Amazon is taking the right steps to embrace that model. The new Kindle isn’t just a gadget, it represents a shift in the publishing business.  

If you don’t believe that, remember that Oprah Winfrey owns one. Amazon had a 3 month backlog on the Kindle from that moment she talked it up. Suddenly, the Kindle had celebrity status.

The electronic market is here. Now, if I can only figure out how to transmit my books to Oprah’s Kindle…