Is the End Near for Hard Cover Novels?

It's certainly heading that direction.

From a story in the New York Daily News...

After decades of anticipation, will the paperback original finally have its day in the sun? 

Certainly, great books have been published without having been sheathed in a dust jacket: maybe most notably, Thomas Pynchon’s “Gravity’s Rainbow.” The decision by Viking to publish it in 1973 as a $4.95 paperback original contributed to that book’s high early sales, especially among young readers.

And there are signs, finally, that publishers are returning to that model — and for good. Perhaps the reason is no more than pure economic necessity: between the rise of the $10 e-book and the growing untenability of buying a $35 hardback as American disposal incomes continue to dwindle, the time is ripe for the paperback original to seize a greater portion of market share.