http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/in-e-reader-age-of-writers-cramp-a-book-a-year-is-slacking.html?_r=1&hpw

- I don't (yet) have an e-reader - but do people read faster with them?  I guess maybe marginally so, since you don't have to stop to turn the page, but I'd think the difference would be pretty negligible.  Maybe not, though?

I think we can all think of a few popular fiction authors who started turning out books faster than they had previously - Maeve Binchy and Mary Higgins Clark come to mind - and wrote a couple of real turkeys before they managed to get back on track.

I don't have an e-reader so I can't speak for others about this; however, I'd think that it wouldn't be much different than reading a paper edition of the same book.  What might be different is the cost associated with this; from what I understand, e-books are less expensive than the same paper version of this.  Also, those who normally wouldn't read a book might consider reading an e-version of one simply because this format is more appealing to them.  And, as this article states, publishers are now pushing writers to create more versions of their work in shorter formats, which will appeal to more and different types of people, as a means of drawing them in.  If someone reads a short story by this author, for example, and enjoys it, they might consider reading longer versions, such as novellas and novels later on, and this will increase their readership.  This wasn't done in the paper format.  If an author chose to write these other versions, that was great, if not, then they stuck to the format that they preferred to write.  Now, they're expected to do all forms, plus write several novels a year.  A person is only capable of so much before the overall quality of their work will begin to deteriorate due to writer fatique and lack of original ideas.  And yes, some authors have produced more than one novel a year, but that was their choice, and it wasn't forced on them, as well as having to produce all of these other forms of fiction in between writing these extra novels.  And besides that, writers aren't assembly line workers, they're artists who create, and that too is the difference here.  Hope this makes sense.

That's true.  Literary authors are actually cautioned to keep it to one book every two years, otherwise it's very difficult to get press and reviews. People like James Patterson who churn them out-- and even have them written by other authors --don't rely on reviews at all.  These books are the kind that require little focus -- the ones people grab when they need to pass the time as they wait for a Dr's appt or to get through a plane trip.