The rise and rise of e-books

Another signs that e-books have arrived: The New York Times announced Wednesday that it will publish e-book bestseller lists in fiction and nonfiction starting next year. The Times has been publishing bestseller lists since 1935, and though Publishers Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today all keep lists as well, the Times’ is considered the industry standard. Janet Elder, the editor of news surveys and election analysis for the paper, says they have spent two years designing a system that tracks e-book sales. E-book sales rose nearly 190 percent in the first nine months of 2010 compared to the same period last year, according to the Association of American Publishers, driven by the growing popularity of the Amazon Kindle and the release of the Apple iPad.