Thumbing through the pages of your favourite novel could be a thing of the past as the battle of the e-books heats up with the launch of Amazon’s much-awaited e-reader, The Kindle, in the UK.

It is Amazon’s number one best-selling product and until now has only been available in America.

The small electronic tablet costs around £170 and has wireless access to hundreds of thousands of publications, or “e-books”.

But the new technology is making publishers nervous – they are already fighting price wars, pressure from market forces such as Google books, piracy and falling profits.

However, some big companies think e-readers represent more of an opportunity than a threat.

Waterstones launched the Sony Reader last year, and now sells one e-book every two minutes.

“It is the biggest change in the industry since the 1930s’ introduction of the paperback,” said Waterstones’ John Howells.

“We hope – we think – it’s going to be a major part of our industry in the years to come.”

But other industry experts forecast trouble, fearing the technology may be adapted to allow piracy on a massive scale that could destroy the industry.

“There is no doubt that the e-book is the biggest gamble that publishers have ever taken,” literary agent and author Peter Cox said.

“It could be the saviour of the business but it could also destroy the business… the other thing that might happen too, of course, is that ordinary writers may not need a publisher any more.”

It may divide opinion but the small digital book market is growing fast.

Global download sales hit £670m in 2008 and the UK market is worth around £6.1m.

In America alone the market grew by 69% last year. - Sky

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