If you’ve been reading the book pages and the tech pages lately (or, more likely, book blogs and tech blogs), chances are you’re getting confused. There are some mixed messages out there. And so far the contradictions seem to exist comfortably with one another.

Yesterday came the news that Blackberry has thrown its hat in the tablet ring with the “PlayBook.” In the preview offered at its unveiling, there was a rather compelling presentation. A device that conveyed utility in any given situation was the rule: a screen that wraps itself over virtually any surface (work or play); a frame through which to view (and record) the world; multiple screens shifting forward and backward with ease while multitasking–all digs in some way at the iPad and things it doesn’t do.

But what it will do, no doubt, is offer a similar experience as an e-reader, which means expanded opportunities for publishers to reach new markets for enhanced e-books. But before you authors out there get all giddy with excitement, licking your chops thinking about those big advances you’re about to get paid, here’s a big slice of humble pie from Jeffrey Trachtenberg on the Wall Street Journal‘s book pages:

It has always been tough for literary fiction writers to get their work published by the top publishing houses. But the digital revolution that is disrupting the economic model of the book industry is having an outsize impact on the careers of literary writers.

Priced much lower than hardcovers, many e-books generate less income for publishers. And big retailers are buying fewer titles. As a result, the publishers who nurtured generations of America’s top literary-fiction writers are approving fewer book deals and signing fewer new writers. Most of those getting published are receiving smaller advances.

The news just keeps getting better and better. Trachtenberg goes on to say:

The new economics of the e-book make the author’s quandary painfully clear: A new $28 hardcover book returns half, or $14, to the publisher, and 15%, or $4.20, to the author. Under many e-book deals currently, a digital book sells for $12.99, returning 70%, or $9.09, to the publisher and typically 25% of that, or $2.27, to the author.

The upshot: From an e-book sale, an author makes a little more than half what he or she makes from a hardcover sale.

The lower revenue from e-books comes amidst a decline in book sales that was already under way. The seemingly endless entertainment choices created by the Web have eaten into the time people spend reading books. The weak economy also is contributing to the slide.

So that’s it? With declining book sales and the death of the bookstore, e-books are going to have to write themselves since there’s not going to be enough money to pay authors? Not so fast. Here is, perhaps, some comforting news from Leslie Meredith at TechNewsDaily on study done recently of e-reader users:

Over half of people with e-readers, 53 percent, said they read more now than they did six months ago compared to 18 percent of non-e-reader users, according to The Harris Poll of 2,775 adults surveyed last month.

E-reader users are also more likely to buy books. Twenty percent of respondents without e-readers said they have not purchased any books in the past year compared with only eight percent of e-reader users who said the same.

At the opposite end of the purchase spectrum, only 12 percent of those without e-readers purchased 21 or more books in the past year compared with 20 percent of e-reader users who bought and downloaded at least 21 books.

Cue the obvious question: will the increase in reading among those with e-readers eventually make up for the losses in declining book sales and the disparity between what an author makes on the sales of a book versus an e-book? Well, who knows. But enjoy the mess while it lasts.