Is publishing your own book something that you’ve always wanted to do. Perhaps you have the next great American novel in the top drawer of your desk? Or maybe you have a collection of short stories? Possibly you would like to publish the life story of one of your relatives?

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E-Book readers were certainly hot news in 2009. Internet giant Amazon launched both the Kindle 2.0 and the Kindle DX, causing quite a stir and gaining a lot of publicity for e-book readers in general and the Kindle in particular. Competitors like Sony and Barnes and Noble fought back with readers of their own, whilst others such as Microsoft and Apple continued to develop their own hardware for future release.

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The organisers of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) being held in Las Vegas have, for the first time ever, designated a specific area for e-book readers. This makes perfect sense, there are a minimum of two dozen different manufacturers displaying their readers at this year’s show.

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Amazon must be absolutely delighted with the performance of its Kindle reader family in 2009. The Kindle 2.0 was launched in February and the large format DX followed shortly afterwards in June. The Kindle very rapidly became Amazon’s top selling product – even before the international launch of the Kindle 2.0 in October.

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There are some who maintain that, when Amazon launched their Kindle ebook reader in November of 2007, it had minimal competition. Whilst there may be an element of truth in this, it does seem a little harsh on the Sony PRS reader, which was perfectly fine in its day. The reality is that the Kindle offered users significant added functionality which had not been available prior to its launch. Amazon’s large selection of available Kindle books and wireless connectivity with no monthly fees, were both big selling points.

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A court in Paris has found internet search giant Google to be in breach of French copyright law. La Martiniere, a French publisher, has been awarded 300,000 Euros (approximately $ 430,000) in damages and interest. Google must also pay 10,000 Euros ($ 14,000) each day until the book extracts are removed from its database. The French Publishers’ Association, La Martiniere and an author’s group initiated the action and had requested that Google be fined 15m Euros ($ 21m).

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When Amazon released the large format Kindle DX e-book reader in June of 2009, it caused quite a stir in the academic world. The original Kindle, launched in November 2007, and the upgraded Kindle 2, which debuted in February 2009, had both attracted some interest – but nothing approaching the commotion which surrounded the DX.

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