Editor's letter: The year of the ebook

IN our 12 top trends for the year we've made the rather bold claim that we think this year is going to be the year ebooks really take off.

THERE are a lot of things you tell yourself you'll never do. I'm not talking about illegal or dangerous things here. What I'm talking about are, for want of a better word, conceptual things.

But then one day, for some reason or another, you find yourself crossing a line you thought you'd never cross and in the process you discover that not only is the experience not that bad but that it's actually pretty good. No doubt this is what fans of extreme sports such as bungee jumping say but I'm thinking of something that involves a lot less adrenalin.

Over the Christmas period I decided to take a plunge into the unknown and bought and downloaded my very first ebook. I did it as an experiment. I was curious and wanted to know what the fuss was about. To cut a long story short, I'm now a convert. I still love the smell of a paper book, the weight and feel of it, too. Then there's the sound a new book makes when you open it and the spine cracks a little. Of course you get none of that sensory experience with an ebook, but what you get is convenience.

You can take as many books away with you on a holiday or business trip as you like without having to consider how much space they will take up in your luggage.

You don't even need to decide what reading mood you will be in: you can basically take your entire library with you if you want. You can look up a word you don't know the meaning of right there on the page with a couple of keystrokes. Just finished a book and want to read something else by the same author? You don't even need to leave your home to buy one.

Our first issue for 2012 includes our 12 top trends for the year and we've made the rather bold claim that we think this year is going to be the year ebooks really take off. Did I mention they are in many cases cheaper than the hard copy and in some cases free?

The electronic book publishing phenomenon is not just about convenience though. It's about making publishing more accessible and it will open up opportunities for smaller publishers. Ebooks can enhance the reading experience too. And rather than signalling the end of books, the convenience of ebooks can actually encourage reading. I haven't taken a book away with me on a work trip for a long time because I don't want to have to cart it around the world and so I've been watching movies on flights rather than reading. On a recent seven-day trip to Europe, though, I took 18 ebooks with me and one is 600 pages long.

I'm not saying paper books are a threatened species by any means. The electronic format is not suitable for all types of book publishing or all types of reader. I'm not sure I would give one to someone as a gift, for example, but it's also not something to be afraid of. The experience of bungee jumping, on the other hand, is not something I'm curious about so I don't think I'll be taking that particular plunge any time soon.

If you'd like to tell us what you think of our 12 trends, or share what you think will be big in 2012, then we'd like to hear from you at our Facebook page at facebook.com/wishmagazine.