I am an Author myself, and a vivid reader..I take advantage of the technology available to Author''s today, but it is also putting libraries and your local book stores in jeopardy...too much of a good thing can go sour...with the kindle...nook...tablets and phones these days...who wants to actually get up in-order to search for a book?...I prefer the traditional paper and hardcover books, but it seems most of the world doesn't share my opinion.
The internet has been popular since the late 90's, and until now there are still lots of bookstores around, like Barnes And Noble is still in business, so I wouldn't worry if I were you. It's obvious that the demand for traditional books is still pretty large, although it has decreased due to the availability of ebooks.
I think ebooks are making paper books less popular. Maybe not obsolete, but I'm sure sales have gone down a lot since ebooks became more accessible and easier to find. Nowadays every book has an ebook version, whereas a few years ago very few did. I myself still prefer reading paper books, but find myself reading ebooks more every day. Even thought I love having the book in my hands, feeling it, holding it, the smell, ebooks have became so much easier and practical. it's a shame, but I do thing they took a huge place of regular books.
I think traditional books that don't include photos might go away because of e-books. E-books are easier to transport with you than a bulky paper book. However, comic books, especially ones about Anime, will keep paper books alive for generations. These are the only types of reads I see young people (18 and under) toting around along with their tablets, iPods and other gizmos.
IMO, owing to the fact the ebooks are much easier to share than traditional books, publishers [in future] will lean more towards aggressively marketing real paper in order to protect themselves from losing $$$$ [having their books shared on peer to peer networks, torrent sites and such]. Should paper books lose out and became obsolete then I'm sorry for all writers because they'll hardly make any money from the books they write.
As popular as ebooks are these day, I believe that paper books still have a long time to go. There is still demand for paper books and is a lot at that. There are still many old school people like me that prefers real books to digital books. The novelty of holding a book and the smell of freshly opened books is irreplaceable.
