Last week I read Scott Barman's blog post on e-books in numismatics, and was happy to see the discussion move to The E-Sylum. I'd like to add a few points to the discussion.

First, we wholeheartedly agree with Dennis Tucker's assertion that quality content is of utmost importance. We at Krause Publications feel privileged to be part of a group of publishers worldwide, large and small, who continue to serve interesting, educational, essential content to collectors from novice to expert.

Our move into electronic publishing has gone well. We began selling our Standard Catalogs on disc in 2007, and those products continue to gain market acceptance each year. Others have noted what makes CDs attractive: portability, image enlargement, the ability to print individual pages.

In 2009 we moved to "slice and dice" our content as digital downloads. This allows us to produce content that manufacturing and distribution challenges would not allow us to otherwise produce, and collectors can focus in on their niche interest.

This year you will see more and more KP books available for e-reader devices like the iPad, Kindle, Nook, etc. For instance, here are links to Kindle editions of two recent releases, Warman's U.S. Coin Collecting and Canadian Coin Digest.

Warman's U.S. Coin Collecting on KindleCanadian Coin Digest on Kindle

Numismatic books face certain challenges in formatting for e-readers. In particular, our catalogs are image-heavy, which makes them very large files, and this can make them difficult to download. Thus, expect to see KP create e-reader specific products that are smaller and more focused than our large catalogs.

Our parent company, F+W Media, has made e-books a top priority. In fact, we are hosting the second annual Digital Book World conference in New York City starting today (January 24), and are keenly focused on staying at the front of this market revolution.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions regarding Krause Publications' books, e- or otherwise, feel free to contact me at scott.tappa@fwmedia.com.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:()