John Grisham gives nod to e-books

Popular legal thriller author John Grisham has broken his holdout against selling his books in an electronic format and will sell all of his 23 titles as e-books, his publisher said yesterday.

The former lawyer, whose best sellers include The Firm and A Time To Kill, had previously held off selling his books electronically, expressing concern that they would wipe out traditional bookstores and make it harder for new writers to succeed. But from yesterday, all of Grisham's fiction and non-fiction books will be available through e-book retailers, publisher Random House said.

As e-books have grown in popularity, some authors have been embroiled in royalty negotiations with publishers. A Random House spokesman would not disclose the terms of the deal, but said "today was a watershed deal".

International Digital Publishing Forum figures show wholesale revenue from e-book sales in the United States more than tripled in the fourth quarter of 2009 to US$55.9 million (NZ$78.2m) from $16.6m in the same quarter in 2008.

- Reuters

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