Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Amazon Sells More Ebooks On Christmas Than Real Books

Posted by Soulskill on from the takes-way-more-to-stuff-a-stocking-though dept.

ctmurray writes "Amazon reports for the first time ever they sold more ebooks on one day than real books. My wife is an ebook-only author and reported her largest single day sales on Christmas day, and December has been her best month ever as well. All those Kindles bought for this season are being seen in ebook sales." The battle with publishers over pricing seems to be coming to the fore as well.

35 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. New feature by countertrolling · · Score: 2, Interesting

    All "books" come with disappearing ink.

    --
    For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
  2. Greedy publishers by vvaduva · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why isn't Amazon getting into the publishing business to avoid all these greedy publisher problems? They have enough weight to put out ebooks without the involvement of people who seek out to drain every dollar from the author of the book, so I am not getting it. Perhaps contractual obligations prevent them from doing so, but we are no longer living in the time when only the guy with the printing press dictated how things are done. Or am I wrong?

    1. Re:Greedy publishers by zippthorne · · Score: 4, Insightful

      First, they have to prove that there is a market.

      The eBooks publishing method and the actual recruitment of authors are two separate businesses. In the laster case, they have to build up an infrastructure of editors and associated staff, and even a financing arm (for advances).

      They may simply not want to take the risk and capital cost to get into the publishing business, preferring to do "one" thing well: distribution.

      --
      Can you be Even More Awesome?!
    2. Re:Greedy publishers by stoolpigeon · · Score: 4, Informative

      They are in the publishing business - it's called booksurge and is apparently in the process of being rebranded CreateSpace.

      This is print on demand, self publishing stuff but reading the above articles make it pretty clear to me that this is where stuff is headed. The big publishing houses don't make a lot of sense any more. Pretty much like music.

      --
      It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
    3. Re:Greedy publishers by ErikZ · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Finding good authors and hooking them up with good editors is not an easy job.

      The Kindle and the Amazon web site are the only things Amazon has ever produced. Everything else, they're just a middle man.

      --
      Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
    4. Re:Greedy publishers by srothroc · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How is it clear that this is where publishing is headed? This makes no sense at all to me.

      Booksurge allows for smaller runs of books with authors running their own publicity -- the only person I can think of who has done this successfully is Wil Wheaton, who had a leg up in the form of childhood fame. What it does not give you is an established infrastructure for support, connections with other publishers/countries, advances, editorial advice, and additional contracts/advertising. These are all things that I would imagine are very, very useful for writers.

      For readers, traditional publishing houses offer filters in the form of editors and the people who read the slush pile. When you buy a book from a large publishing house like Tor, Penguin, or Macmillan, you can expect a certain level of quality in the writing. This isn't say that all of their books are good or will fit your tastes, but there's a certain standard that the editors at those houses will try to adhere to; it's how they stay in business.

      To use a car analogy, a traditional publishing house is like a dealership that sells only new Hyundais; you might not like everything or the prices, but you can expect a certain standard. A self-publisher like Booksurge would be more like a dealership that specializes in selling cars built from the ground-up, or kit cars... by hobbyists. Sure, some people may know what they're doing and you'll get an amazing car, but a lot of them will probably be crap.

      --
      http://www.tenjou.net/
    5. Re:Greedy publishers by thesuperbigfrog · · Score: 3, Informative

      They are in the ebook publishing business with the Amazon Digital Test Platform: https://dtp.amazon.com/mn/signin

      You can have your book published directly to Kindle and get better royalties than many other publishers would give you.

      --
      42
    6. Re:Greedy publishers by slim · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The Kindle and the Amazon web site are the only things Amazon has ever produced.

      And Amazon Web Services. You could almost describe them as a cloud computing company, who run their own e-commerce site as a reference implementation -- if it weren't for their impressive order fulfilment facilities too.

    7. Re:Greedy publishers by TheLink · · Score: 2

      It could still head that way. Then reviewers and review sites might become important. You don't make as much from being a reviewer. But economists might say that's a sign of the market becoming more efficient ;).

      Nowadays I've been getting more useful reviews from food bloggers than "professional" food reviewers.

      The professional food reviewers might have a more refined palate etc, but that sometimes is the problem if you're not like them at all :).

      I've considered creating a site where everyone can review anything (but the review is just a score and a very short description).

      Users then pick a "review POV" that matches best their "target taste", and use it to look for stuff that "target taste" might like.

      The target taste doesn't have to be what you like. You could be looking for stuff someone else might like based on what you know of that person's preferences. So you find a "review POV" that likes and dislikes the same stuff, and go from there.

      The trouble is finding the math and algorithms that can handle this in a large scale. The other big trouble is I'm just a lazy person with many ideas that I never ever get around to implementing. Ideas are easy, but it takes a lot of time and effort to try and implement just one idea - that's why I think patent trolls are disgusting, and patents currently cause more harm than good.

      --
    8. Re:Greedy publishers by stoolpigeon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Booksurge allows for smaller runs of books..."
       
      It allows for an unlimited run of ebooks. This is the issue I'm talking about. As more people purchase more books in electronic format as opposed to dead tree, big publishers will become less relevant.
       
      There are still a number of services that a publisher can provide, and my guess would be that Booksurge and the like can or will provide them. So in a way, publishers will still exist, and they will still be a part of distribution but it is now all electronic and the payment structure will shift to reflect that.
       
          In the last link, about the battle with publishers over pricing, it seems apparent to me that the primary leverage the publisher brings to the table is access to the markets, but that ceases to exist with digital media.
       
      This should go without saying in any web forum, but I'm not a published author and I'm not involved in the publishing business. These are just my opinions as an avid reader and someone who spends a lot of time online. That said, I read the vast majority of my books off-line. The ebook readers and their functionality still aren't there for me. The ebooks I do read, I read on my laptop. I've never payed money for an ebook.

      --
      It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
    9. Re:Greedy publishers by V50 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Booksurge is great for very niche products. I've bought some stuff that was published with them, that was great, but far, far from mainstream (Neopagan reconstructionism). One can see where a publisher's resources would help (higher rate of spelling errors), but overall, I think self-publishing like that is great for books with a very specific market.

      That said, I agree with you that mainstream publishers aren't going anywhere. They do provide valuable services in terms of proofreading, editing and promotion, even if the actual printing aspect is likely to decline in importance.

    10. Re:Greedy publishers by blackest_k · · Score: 2, Insightful

      you know there are things called book reviews that tend to help decide what books are worth reading. Heck if a book stinks you can stop reading it.

      Your car analogy doesn't apply, a hand built car is a one off a book is exactly the same if there are 10 copies or 10,000 copies. It helps that some authors have a reputation so generally you can expect a certain quality. Admittedly some authors are over-rated overwise i'd never have read a book by Geoffrey Archer.

      On the plus side more ebooks should make it easier to get hold of a wider selection of books and then we can buy the good ones.

      --
      Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
    11. Re:Greedy publishers by Mista2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      They already do allow authors to cut out the middelmen and go direct. As long as you hold the digital rights for your work, it can be easily formatted and uploaded for the kindle store, then you sit back and wait for your tiny percentage to roll in. But like with iPhones, you still have to market yourself like crazy as Amazon will put in no effort to get your book found when people are browsing.

  3. public insanity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Joe Sixpack:

    Monday: "Hmm... it turns out that buying DRM music was not a good idea. It's caused all sorts of problems for other people. From now on, I'll just buy plain mp3's!!"

    Tuesday: "I want to buy some e-books. Hey, maybe DRM will be OK there!!"

    Seriously, after the Kindle debacle, why on earth would anyone support that platform?

    1. Re:public insanity? by Endo13 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Hate to break it to you, but Joe Sixpack isn't that savvy. He doesn't know what DRM is, and he hasn't a clue what fucked up his music. Same thing for Grandma Jones. They're more likely to think it's somehow the band's fault that their CD didn't work, and will never buy their music again, in any form. Or they believe that the CD player is broken, because the disc worked in a different player.

      Also, bad as DRM is, most people actually don't have trouble with it.

      --
      There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
    2. Re:public insanity? by Nyeerrmm · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think it had more to do with the record labels allowing it. Remember, when iTunes Plus came out, it was basically just EMI artists that were available DRM-free. After EMI didn't go out of business, and the other labels decided to allow Amazon to sell DRM-free tracks (to break Apple's hold on the digital market,) only to realize they didn't go out of business, they finally gave up and let Apple do it too.

      The motivator behind DRM in music was the labels, not the distributors. I think that the same thing will eventually happen in e-Books as well -- unfortunately you can't rip a paper book to a digital format nearly as easily as you could rip CDs to MP3s, so if you want to get more than small selection of e-books legally and DRM-free, until then, you're SOL.

    3. Re:public insanity? by ObjetDart · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I guess I'll wade in here with a perspective. I'm someone who has been violently opposed to any DRM in my music files, and never bought a single track from iTunes in my life. I'm also a Kindle owner who happily buys DRM'd books from Amazon all the time. How can this be?

      The difference I guess is how I want to consume the two different types of media. I want to be able to play my music again and again, now, and 20 years from now, in my car, on my media player, on my 4 different PCs, and on my living room stereo. DRM basically makes this impossible, or so convoluted as to be impractical.

      OTOH, I only want to read a book once. The only place that I want to read my eBook is on my Kindle. I buy a Kindle book, I read it on the Kindle, and I'm done with it. That fact that it's DRM'd never affects me. I don't care that I can't loan it or resell it later, these are just not big concerns for me. I'm willing to give up those things in exchange for the convenience of a lightweight electronic reader.

      I'm also aware that Amazon has no choice, just as Apple had no choice when they first introduced iTunes. The DRM requirement is being driven by the publishers. If Amazon wants to get the big publishers on board today, there must be some kind of copy protection in place to satisfy the dinosaurs. Over time, I suspect this will change, just as it did with iTunes.

      --
      I read Usenet for the articles.
  4. One day only by LoverOfJoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It makes sense that ebooks would outsell regular books on Christmas.

    How many people actually get online to buy regular books on Christmas day? The presents for others have already been bought. They aren't likely to get anything for themselves. Heck, unless you got a Kindle for Christmas you aren't likely to even go to the Amazon website on Christmas day. Most people are spending time with their family and enjoying the presents they DID receive. The people that are more into physical books likely got some physical books from friends or family. But the ones who got a Kindle will find it pretty useless until they put some books on it. Sure the gift giver may have put some books on there to begin with but more likely they gave them some cash or gift card to select their own books with.

    1. Re:One day only by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you got an Amazon voucher for Christmas, you might go to the web site on Christmas day and order something, but given the fact that it probably won't ship for a few days there's no rush. It's definitely not as much of a draw as wanting some eBooks for your new Kindle.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    2. Re:One day only by Sporkinum · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I got an Amazon voucher for Christmas, but I can't think of anything I want or need from there.

      BTW, maybe the reason kindle books sold so well, is because the regular books were covered by dreck like this.

      Amazon.com's Hot Holiday Bestsellers (Nov. 15 through Dec. 19, based on units ordered):
              * Books: "Going Rogue" by Sarah Palin; "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown; and "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

      --
      "He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
  5. Misleading.... by KronosReaver · · Score: 3, Informative

    Just like iTunes, Amazon generates a zero dollar sales receipt when you download a free Ebook from them. And there are plenty of those to be found, mostly the first book in a series... "Hey Kid, The first ones FREE." - but we will be counting it as a "Sale".

  6. Where is the catch? by giladpn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Lets all look around us; people who read books have not moved en-masse to e-books. So how come Amazon is announcing sales of e-books have surpassed regular books?

    There is a trendiness effect. People who usually do NOT read books may still buy an e-book reader for someone else... esepcially on official toy-giving day a.k.a xmas.

    Sure, eventually e-book readers make sense and will replace paper. I'm just saying that day is not now.

    In fact, by the time e-book readers replace paper, they may look like paper themselves. There is a tech trend towards computers that are as thin as a sheet of paper...

    Personally I like paper, so I will buy an e-book when it catches up and becomes as thin as paper. Not long to wait - a year or three.

    1. Re:Where is the catch? by tgd · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Depends where you are, and the type of reader crowd you are talking about.

      I've been in cafes where the ratio of Kindle to print readers was easily 2:1, and probably higher. If you travel a lot on business, the numbers are clearly through the roof on flights. That makes sense -- lugging books on business trips is just lousy.

      What Amazon has said repeatedly is among the demographic that tends to buy a lot of books, the Kindle is taking over. Its telling when they can release numbers showing that 1/3 of their sales of books where electronic copies are available are electronic.

      Nothing in the article suggests its replacing paper now, they're just saying for the first time they sold more ebooks than real books on a day, regardless of the reason. Thats still a significant step.

    2. Re:Where is the catch? by masmullin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "becomes as thin as paper"

      My PRS 505 is way thinner than a 500page book.

  7. Not Surprising by Rehnberg · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Actually, I'm not surprised. A lot of people would be getting Kindles on Christmas, and would need to fill them, whereas I'm not sure how many people need to order books ON Christmas, since that's when the books would be given.

  8. Re:!sales by ClosedSource · · Score: 3, Funny

    "or leaving them on a train for strangers"

    Of course you can. You just leave your Kindle behind.

  9. Kindle Prices ... by tgd · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I got an Amazon gift certificate for Christmas, because Amazon has no mechanism to gift Kindle books (which is strangely shortsighted, but not the topic on hand...)

    I did buy one book with it, but three other books I was going to buy the kindle copies were substantially more than the print copies (in one case, more than double the cost -- $19.97 versus something in the $8 range for a *hardcover*!)

    I'm not sure if others have noticed, but lately Kindle books have been trending upwards in price, and its pretty common now that paperback editions are less than the Kindle copies, whereas six months ago they tended to be cheaper, if only by a nickel or something...)

    I don't know if prices jumped on Christmas because they expected this, and will come back down, or if these higher prices I noticed on that day will persist into the new year. I'm not sure what Amazon is thinking -- gaming prices is a bad idea when you start getting competition that people actually are talking about.

    1. Re:Kindle Prices ... by Roogna · · Score: 2, Informative

      While the sales have apparently ended, most of December the -hardbound- of Terry Pratchett's latest Discworld novel at either Amazon or B&N was cheaper than the respective eBook versions. Granted without the sales going on the eBook is now cheaper, but one does wonder why the digital copy would -ever- be prices higher than any
      other version.

  10. Price is the problem. by n0dna · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I got a Sony PR-505 last year and have yet to purchase a single ebook.

    The DRM bothers me, but there are enough python scripts running around that will strip it out of the epub/pdf formats that it's not that much of a concern.

    Price is why I don't buy them. While there are a handful of public domain books worth reading (opinion) the real content is only for sale.

    I just flat-out refuse to pay 50% more for the same content in basically the same format that the publisher already has filed away somewhere. When do you think the last time that a major popular author wrote out a manuscript on a typewriter was? Or longhand? You know it's already in an electronic document format somewhere.

    No printing, no binding, no shipping, no stocking, no returns. No fuel, no toxic waste from the paper making process, no toxins from the inks.

    Yet I get to pay 50% more?

    1. Re:Price is the problem. by n0dna · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's my point exactly.

      If the physical paperback is $7, why is the ebook $10?

      Yeah, it's only a couple of bucks, but if the ebooks actually cost $3 more apiece to produce, I'll eat my hat.

       

  11. I've been buying eBooks for 10 years now. by argent · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I've been looking through my collection of eBooks, all but one non-DRMed Mobipocket or PalmDoc format, and the first ones I got were in January of 2000, right after I bought my first PDA. For me, eBooks were the "killer product" for a PDA.

    Near as I can tell the big reason these things haven't taken off are:

    1. The format wars. We need an "MP3 of eBooks". Mobipocket format is pretty common, and it's good enough.

    2. The price. People aren't going to pay higher-than-paperback prices for an electronic book. They know how cheap electronic distribution is, that needs to be part of the deal.

  12. Re:It's not the Kindle by nightgeometry · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This is pretty much obviously not true. If it were then they would sell ebooks in a format that any other reader could use (pretty much ePub, at this point).

    They don't, they use a proprietary format that no one else is able to use. Thus I assume that they are not *just* after selling electronic copies of books.

    I don't remember the exact time line that the Kindle was released. I think that Sony hadn't yet started to move to ePub, and nor had many others. In which case they should have stuck to ereader or mobipocket. They even own one of those (I always forget which),

    --
    The best is the enemy of the good
  13. They Don't Have Critical Mass Yet... by Senjutsu · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In order to cut traditional publishers out of the loop, they need to have a critical mass of Kindle users.

    What do you think is going to happen when Amazon announces that they'd be happy to give any author 25% of all sales if they publish direct through Amazon as opposed to the 5% their publishing house gives them? All the traditional publishers will immediately pull their properties off of Amazon to try to kill their new rival (or at least, try not to keep feeding the hand that is strangling them). So Amazon's Kindle readership has to be big enough that the readership stays with them when a huge amount of back-catalogue suddenly stops being available for purchase, big enough that authors will leave behind editors they have developed working relationships with over decades to have access to.

    Amazon isn't there yet.

  14. Re:How many bought both? by Abcd1234 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Seems that way, doesn't it... :)

    Incidentally, I happen to agree with you that DRM, in general, is awful. But the truth is, for the most part, DRM just isn't a workable technology. So as long as an option exists for me to strip away the DRM on the content I purchase, I'm largely indifferent. That said, until it was clear that the Kindle DRM was thoroughly hacked, I was largely in the "not for me" camp. But now, I'd definitely consider it (once the price comes down a bit on the device), just as I'm happy to purchase DVDs.

  15. Slashvertising bullshit. by bwashed75 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Sure, they probably sold a few Kindles this Christmas. But my guess is they compare annual low with annual high here. Who the fuck buys paper books on Christmas day?!
    - You're guaranteed a long wait for the item to arrive in the post due to holidays.
    - You're busy with whatever family-holiday thing you do.
    - It's a bit late buying that book as a gift.
    - If it's for yourself, you probably bought it already.. when you bought Christmas gifts two week ago.
    - You've already got lots of new stuff.