The Phoenix literature scene adjusts to the digital age.

Cracking the spine of a good book, smelling the pages, and sitting outside on a patio sipping a cup of coffee are all classical and cultural parts of the bookworm agenda. Since the online explosion of book circulation, the entire industry has taken a shift.

According to the Statista website, the eBook market is projected to reach $16,647 million dollars in 2020. This incline shows the rate in which online sales are becoming heavily popular. The most revenue from electronic book use will be generated in the United States. The user penetration is expected to hit 16.9% by 2025.

Self-Publishing, ebooks, and audiobooks present both challenges and achievements to both sellers and content creators.

Phoenix bookstore, Changing Hands, is keeping the spirit of reading a physical copy of books alive during the digital age. Since 1974, they have been a local favorite for the Phoenix bookstore market.

The bookstore recently began hosting virtual author events and re-opened their doors at both of their Phoenix locations with social distancing guidelines. Changing Hands has previously partnered with ebook and audiobook companies, with their audiobook companionship with the company Libro.fm being the most successful.

Their regular customers and followers have helped keep their bookstore culture alive, but the online market is still persisting in taking sales away from local bookstores.

Changing Hands co-owner and CEO Cindy Dach explains the competition of Amazon Books as an ongoing struggle. “It has massively impacted my business and is putting independent bookstores out of business all across the country,” Dach said.

The cheaper prices for books that Amazon presents has presented a hurdle for all independent bookstore owners to keep their sales progressing. However, Dach is continuously encouraging her customers to continue to rely on their local businesses for book sales in the fight between them and the vast online market.

The book selling business has been soaring, and maintained a streamline since the COVID-19 pandemic due to readers stocking up on books in order to keep themselves occupied in quarantine.

Along with many readers curling up with a good book in quarantine, Phoenix authors are sitting down to pump out content, and are appreciating the ability to communicate with their editors and publishers.

Pamela Tracy, Phoenix local and published romance author, is one of the writers who is learning to thrive in the digital market.

“I'd been through the "regular" process with agents and editors and didn't get anywhere with them (very long story) so getting my novella published online felt like validation,” Tracy said.

The freedom of online publishing has made things easier for the author market to expand. According to the Bowker website, self-publishing increased at a rate of 40% in 2018 and does not show signs of slowing down any time soon.

Tracy has seen this growth first-hand form the author perspective of the market, but has concerns about its freedom and its loosely regulated properties. “The internet has also made it easier to publish your work without going through the "gatekeepers" although some books shouldn't be published,” Tracy said.

Concerns of the regulation of the market are in question from authors who have had experience in the industry, but the publishing process is helped along for them when creating stories.

The benefits and challenges that come with the virtual component of the literature market affect different areas of the business in different ways as the virtual component seems to be only increasing.