Kindle e-books overtake paperback sales
- Thread starter blacbird
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I stand corrected on the freebies...
Still, if Amazon wants to prove the Kindle superior in sales to print books, they need to compare what they are selling to what is selling in book stores.
I think it was Publisher Weekly that reported in 2010 that in 2009 there was something like 768,000 titles published, an all time record. Somewhere around 256,000 were from the big six and their subsidiaries, as well as small established independent presses and university presses. This leaves about 500,000 titles published that are considered self published, or published by small start ups that can not get into book stores. And lets not forget PA and AS and the likes.
I am not saying those 500,000 titles did not deserve to be published, or that self pubbed in inferior. But for reporting methods, if you can't find them into bookstores, then Amazon should not count those titles so that a fair comparison can be made... IMHO...
Still, if Amazon wants to prove the Kindle superior in sales to print books, they need to compare what they are selling to what is selling in book stores.
I think it was Publisher Weekly that reported in 2010 that in 2009 there was something like 768,000 titles published, an all time record. Somewhere around 256,000 were from the big six and their subsidiaries, as well as small established independent presses and university presses. This leaves about 500,000 titles published that are considered self published, or published by small start ups that can not get into book stores. And lets not forget PA and AS and the likes.
I am not saying those 500,000 titles did not deserve to be published, or that self pubbed in inferior. But for reporting methods, if you can't find them into bookstores, then Amazon should not count those titles so that a fair comparison can be made... IMHO...
I wish Amazon would provide a more detailed analysis. For example, what proportion of those e-books sold are also available as a print edition? How many of them were given for free? How many were self-published, how many from the big publishers, and so on.
OK, I'm a publishing obsessive. But I'd find it interesting.
OK, I'm a publishing obsessive. But I'd find it interesting.
Sorry, Gothic, I must be being particularly dim today but I can't see where it says in that Bookseller article that Amazon "fiddled the figures". What am I missing?
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I disagree. (Among other points, many commecially published books are not ordinarily found in bookstores, or at best are special order, and many classics are in numerous editions, print and e-). Although more detail would be interesting.
For whatever it is worth, I am now buying far more Kindle downloads (paid and free, current new books, older books, and classics/obscure old public domain titles) than printed books (very few of those now -- no freaking room for more). I'm also in the process of evicting hundreds (and over the next few months to be thousands) of printed books from my house (uhhh . . . and storage room I use for some of the overflow . . .). I'll still have plenty of real books -- but a lot of the kinds of things I like to read work just fine on the Kindle. I've noticed a pronounced shrinkage in stock (titles and copies, both) at my local B&N. And of course Borders is teetering on the edge of the abyss.
--Ken
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Okay guys, reality check time. We can sit around all day debating whether Amazon's ebook sales are really overtaking print, and whether they are cheating on their numbers, but it doesn't amount to a hill of beans. What matters is what people in the general public are actually buying. And I've got to say that in this Southern gal's world, about half my friends are buying ereaders (all kinds), downloading ebooks (Indie as well as traditionally published) and see ebooks as the way of the future. End users are always going to decide if something is viable for the long run or just a fad.
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Possibly Gothicangel is talking about this Bookseller article where the comments thread is full of lively (but largely uninformed) debate about the numbers.
As FranYoakumVeal says, it's not so much about the exact numbers - I'm sure Amazon were keen to spin the results a little to get a more eye-catching lede. It's the trend. Kindle came out in the UK, what, September? If I look at our digital sales for the last few months, there is a big honking tipping point in the graph right there. There's another huge spike on Christmas day as people started to fill their shiny new gifts with ebooks.
The debate over at the Bookseller is often characterised by posts like this:
It's a weird mixture of insight and paranoia, isn't it?
As FranYoakumVeal says, it's not so much about the exact numbers - I'm sure Amazon were keen to spin the results a little to get a more eye-catching lede. It's the trend. Kindle came out in the UK, what, September? If I look at our digital sales for the last few months, there is a big honking tipping point in the graph right there. There's another huge spike on Christmas day as people started to fill their shiny new gifts with ebooks.
The debate over at the Bookseller is often characterised by posts like this:
It's a weird mixture of insight and paranoia, isn't it?
I do believe that paperbacks are on the way to becoming the exception rather than the rule, but not just yet. Not for a few more years, and even then we will have digital printing for diehards such as myself. The two mediums will happily live side-by-side, me-thinks, just like audio books do.
I would put more stock into Amazon's figures if they were presented by other than Amazon. They have an obviously vested interest in this.
Kerry
I would put more stock into Amazon's figures if they were presented by other than Amazon. They have an obviously vested interest in this.
Kerry
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No, I, too, see eBooks as being where the major successes will be. Some might remember me from a year or so back, when I had my début novel, THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS, as a POD book.
After working my butt off to get it into stores and doing what I could to promote it, it finished up selling 113 copies within two years. Pretty dire, eh? Probably about right for a self published book, but well below what I was after.
So, in October 2010, I decided to put it on the Kindle. Last month, it sold more than 1,100 copies. That's nearly ten times the sales of the paperbacks in just one month. In total, the book has sold over 1,500 copies. It's been Amazon UK's top space opera novel for over a month, as well as regularly charting in the top 10 science fiction novels and ebooks.
Additionally, it is available on the iBookstore and Barnes and Noble for free. On the iBookstore in the UK, it has received 32 ratings (for an average over 4.5 out of 5); in the US, 34. It also features regularly in the UK's free SF and fantasy top 10.
And that's the first edition of the first book. I have a second edition which I've been shopping around the agents (though none are interested), which is far better written, edited and generally a much better read. If I can't get an agent, then I'll be selling the ebooks of the second edition and THE THIRD SIDE for around £1.99 and $2.99 each - on Kindle, iBookstore, Barnes and Noble, etc.
At the end of the day, I think people are more willing to pick up the book if it sounds interesting, is well written, exciting, easily accessible (iPad, iPod, Kindle, etc)... and is cheap. There is now a chance to target people who generally don't read books, but are willing to give it a shot for the right price.
I'd still love to work with a commercial publisher, but at least I now know that I have other options - ones that are clearly working out.
After working my butt off to get it into stores and doing what I could to promote it, it finished up selling 113 copies within two years. Pretty dire, eh? Probably about right for a self published book, but well below what I was after.
So, in October 2010, I decided to put it on the Kindle. Last month, it sold more than 1,100 copies. That's nearly ten times the sales of the paperbacks in just one month. In total, the book has sold over 1,500 copies. It's been Amazon UK's top space opera novel for over a month, as well as regularly charting in the top 10 science fiction novels and ebooks.
Additionally, it is available on the iBookstore and Barnes and Noble for free. On the iBookstore in the UK, it has received 32 ratings (for an average over 4.5 out of 5); in the US, 34. It also features regularly in the UK's free SF and fantasy top 10.
And that's the first edition of the first book. I have a second edition which I've been shopping around the agents (though none are interested), which is far better written, edited and generally a much better read. If I can't get an agent, then I'll be selling the ebooks of the second edition and THE THIRD SIDE for around £1.99 and $2.99 each - on Kindle, iBookstore, Barnes and Noble, etc.
At the end of the day, I think people are more willing to pick up the book if it sounds interesting, is well written, exciting, easily accessible (iPad, iPod, Kindle, etc)... and is cheap. There is now a chance to target people who generally don't read books, but are willing to give it a shot for the right price.
I'd still love to work with a commercial publisher, but at least I now know that I have other options - ones that are clearly working out.
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The Kindle bestseller lists include only paid books. Free ebooks are no longer included. One of my books is on three of these lists. My ebook sales are accelerating, currently running into the hundreds per month and my royalty earnings are better than for trade paperbacks. Amazon is the great playfield leveler for us authors.
Congrats! That's what I love about the e-book industry. Everyone, self-published or not, is on the same playing field, and all that matters to Amazon is the number of sales your book is getting. There's no stigma attached to it.
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Absolutely right. And then there's the venerable NYT, which is starting its own ebook bestseller lists on Feb. 13 -- but is excluding self-published authors. The authors of the bible wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in Hades with the NYT today. Amazon = Democracy.