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The Society of Authors says that book "piracy" will ultimately deter authors from writing. Its chairwoman, Girl with a Pearl Earring author Tracy Chevalier told The Times that unless action is taken soon, book sales will go the way of the CD.

"For a while it will be great for readers because they will pay less and less but in the long run it's going to ruin the information," she said. "People will stop writing. There's a lot of 'wait and see what the technology brings' but the trouble is if you wait and

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see too long then it's gone. That's what happened to the music industry."

Chevalier believes new ways have to be found of compensating authors.

"We have to evolve and create a very different pay system, possibly by making the content available free to all and finding a way to get paid separately."

But not all writers agree that the future is bleak.

The award-winning author of Hellbent and Mortal Coil, Anthony MacGowan, believes that there will always be a place for the book.

"People will go on wanting books as objects for a long time," he said.

"Perhaps one day we'll all be kindled-up [a reference to Amazon's ebook reader], and then pirated editions will be a big issue, but until then, I think it's a weird sort of me-too envy on the part of the book world. The idea that authors will stop writing because digital versions are floating around is nuts."

In fact, the internet is enabling many authors who are ignored by publishers to get their work into print.

"I think print on demand will happen a lot more, and it will be a good thing, helping all kinds of harmless cranks get a toe-hold in publishing."

As for his own books, anyone who wants a digital copy is welcome to it.