Since Johannes Gutenberg started working with his mechanical printing press in the 15th century, books have always been about one thing: words printed on paper then attractively bound for sale.

All that, however, may soon change.

Starting with the introduction of Amazon's Kindle DX on May 6 — along with similar ePaper reading devices like the Sony eReader — bookworms now have a computerized option when it comes to curling up with the written word: a large, flat device the width of a pencil with rotating pages and a static screen, a device that readers can use to peruse magazines, newspapers or even a classic from John Steinbeck or Charles Dickens.

But is the Kindle really something that could threaten to put publishers out of business, like the way the iPod seems to be presently decimating the music industry? And how do local and regional authors feel about a machine which could soon make literary agents and brick-and-mortar bookstores obsolete?

"If a device like the Kindle becomes like the iPod, it raises an incredible question: do writers even need publishers anymore?" celebrated Lancaster author Libby Sternberg said.

"I don't think that anybody knows how all this is going to sugar out," she said, "but devices like the Kindle have the potential to change just about everything in the book business."

A Baltimore native who earned a degree in voice from Peabody Conservatory before starting up writing as a hobby, Sternberg is the author of the recent novel "Fire Me" from SourceBooks, a romantic comedy about a group of employees trying to get themselves pink-slipped in order to earn a generous severance package.

Publishing, Sternberg said, is not like other areas of the entertainment industry where most of the advertising dollars are spent on consumers; rather, she said, most money is spent on a handful of booksellers and book vendors, trying to persuade, say, representatives from Barnes & Noble or Borders Express to carry a book and promote it.

"A lot of people think that bookstore employees just pick out the books they like and then display them on the tables up front, but the truth is that publishers pay the bookstores a lot of money for that prime display space," she said. "And publishing is also a business of tremendous risk, since a publisher has to first print and bind the books before they can sell them."

For Pittsburgh author Brian Butko, author of the "Lincoln Highway Companion" from Stackpole Books, his job as a writer is "to go where the readers are," even if that means away from bound books on printed paper.

"Don't get me wrong, I love books. My house is sinking into the ground from all the weight of my bookshelves, but there are some folks out there who are saying that we're on the verge of a revolution," he said.

However, Butko said he's skeptical that the new devices will live up to their hype. "I've been in the writing business for 15 years, and I've seen plenty of boogeymen. When the Internet came out they said it would destroy publishing. And when big-box stores like Wal-Mart started selling books they said it would destroy publishing. But in each of those cases … publishing somehow found a way to co-exist and even thrive."

For Nancy Martin, author of the popular Blackbird Sisters mystery series including her latest title "Murder Melts In Your Mouth" from Penguin, a recent opportunity to try a Sony eReader changed her opinion on just what the future might hold for both publishers and bookstores.

"I borrowed a Sony eReader and went to the beach for a week … and it was great not to have to drag along a sack-full of paperbacks. Using the eReader didn't hurt my eyes, and I could bookmark just by flipping a switch, and the best thing was that when my eyes were tired I could just zoom in and make the print larger," she said.

However, she said, one thing that disappointed her about the device was the experience of choosing which novels to read: rather than going into a bookstore, getting a cup of coffee and chatting with a friendly bookseller about the latest titles, she instead got sent to the Sony Web site, which contained little more than a list of titles to download.

"I was also disappointed in the cost of it. I mean, $300? The price is going to have to come down before anybody starts to seriously talk about putting the big boys in New York out of business," she said.

Some literary agents, she said, are projecting that in the next five years books read on devices like the Kindle could make up about 10 percent of the book business, a number on par with profits currently generated by audio books. Also, she said, it's her impression that the "wave" of transferring books away from paper would probably start first with textbooks in order to keep scientific and technical information up-to-date.

"And if we have a generation that's being raised without books, then it's just a matter of time until traditional publishers get put out of business," she said. "On the other hand, I also remember back when eBooks were suddenly all the rage in the 1990's, and the techies kept saying 'the revolution is around the corner' but somehow, that revolution just never seemed to happen."

For Sternberg, readers will still love to enjoy the books that writers want to write: the question, then, is what will happen to the people in the middle, the agents, editors, sales reps, marketing experts, cover artists, booksellers and publishing executives who currently collect the bulk of the money that a customer pays for a book?

"With this technology, there's the possibility that an author could write a book and then deliver it almost directly into a reader's hands, bypassing an entire industry," she said. "And if that happens, then publishing as a whole is going to crack wide open."

For more information on the new Kindle DX released this month from Amazon, visit www.amazon.com. To learn more about the Sony eReader, go to www.SonyStyle.com.