First came the guide book, then came the website and now comes the ebook. Then comes people asking for a print edition of the ebook. But it's over, sadly, it's over.

I love the look and feel of that book in my hands. The last couple of editions of 'Resorts of Maldives' have been in a recognisable guidebook size; a large guidebook but much smaller than the A4 editions that came before. The books were printed in Singapore and combine a matte laminated paperback cover with key aspects of a quality hardback book — the sewn binding (instead of glue) with textile top and bottom, the end-papers glued inside the covers and a lovely slightly rounded spine. All great to pick up, feel the quality and flick through.

But sales of books have been declining for years now. The leading UK independent book distributor, who placed my books in shops around the UK and Europe, closed itself down last year. They were not bust but they could read the writing on the wall.

Now as it happens, most of the sales of Resorts of Maldives have always been in the Maldives themselves, yet here too sales have been going down, as most people get their information from the web and from apps. I have noticed on each succeeding visit more and more mobile devices being used in the lobbies of resorts, around the pool and in the restaurants. More and more resorts are making wifi available in wider spaces.

So if physical book sales are down and reading on laptops, tablets and mobiles are up it makes sense to turn Resorts of Maldives into an ebook. But here’s the irony: Amazon do not sell Kindles or Kindle content to the Maldives.

The Maldives have not signed the international copyright agreement yet and I think this is behind Amazon’s reticence. No matter, in a couple of month’s time, the Resorts of Maldives ebook will be available in all the other forms, for download to any device.

A key advantage of the ebook is the distribution that is possible. Sitting at home I can make it available to almost every country on earth. You see now why the bricks and mortar book distributor, with agents pounding the streets, saw the future and closed themselves down. You’ve still got to get the book seen amongst all the clutter on the net and persuade people to buy your content but all in all there’s no looking back, this is where we are going.

Another advantage is the speed and cost of making new ebook editions, rather than designing, printing and distributing physical books. Faster still to update the reviews, pictures and prices would be a Resorts of Maldives app but that isn’t happening for a while.

The present ebook of Resorts of Maldives is available from your local amazon kindle store. You can read the book on any device as long as you have previously downloaded the kindle app.

The whole publishing industry is in turmoil or at least in constant flux as it tries to work out how to adapt to this extraordinary disruptive technology, the internet. I’m doing the same in my tiny niche that is the Maldives.