Amy Tiemann discusses the costs of publishing and shipping books. Will the Kindle change the way people buy and read books?

In the meantime, it's still surprisingly hard to imagine what life with an e-reader would be like. I look forward to three major benefits: one, being able to check out books from the library via e-reader; two, the ability to consolidate a back-breaking load of textbooks into one small device; and three, since I have independently published two books, the possibility of doing so electronically is this small publisher's idea of a killer app. It's not only paper and production costs that eat into my already-slim profit margins, but the transportation costs of shipping books from the printer, to my warehouse, and then to customers. With gasoline and postage costs at all-time highs, I can't afford to compete with Amazon's free two-day shipping, even for my own books. While big-time authors and publishers may still have the luxury of scoffing at e-readers, the smaller outfits may want to get on board to promote digital delivery. If Kindle can connect me to my readers through online, wireless communication, I am all for it.

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