Ulsamer says that while demand isn't high yet, he expects it to become so. There are a lot of efforts going forth, which is good, because consumers are going to want flexibility, which translates into the big question of what devices are they going to be downloading books into. Those business models will evolve for a while before they settle in. As a distributor, Ulsamer is preparing for the day when electronic books are popular. After all, he has nothing to lose.
Electronic books are both a threat and an opportunity.
I think there's room for the purchase of books in electronic format and hard copy. If you ask the folks over at SoftBook Press or other electronic reading-device manufacturers, the issues Ulsamer brought up are already moot to some degree. SoftBook and others have been working for several years to solve the problems inherent in electronic books, and have wrought some elegant solutions. We make electronic reading devices that you can use apart from a computer. Many sites have books online, such as traditional Web sites like Gutenberg.