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eBook Sales Outpace Hardbacks
dptalia writes "Amazon announced that for every 100 hardback books they sell, 180 eBooks are sold. In addition, they've seen sales for Kindles triple since they lowered the price. But traditionalists shouldn't panic yet — paperbacks are still the king."
Paperbacks will never die simply because once they leave the hands of the vendor they also leave the control of the vendor.
E-books outsell hardcover books at Amazon.
Amazon is the dominant ebook seller and pushes ebooks very hard.
Unless Amazon have nearly half the hardback market, then hardbacks still outsell Kindle ebooks in total.
I never bought hardbacks to begin with, but several hundred paperbacks adorn my shelves.
I would much rather lose a single paperback to either forgetfulness, water damage or a friend borrowing and never returning it that losing my ereader that way.
Printed books are only superior in possibly 3 ways, being able to trade them, being able to use them without electricity and being able to mark them up. Which is really only 2 ways, as anybody that enamored with them shouldn't be writing in them. Both of those can be dealt with, solar cells and fixing the DRM model.
Why shouldn't they be writing in them? My favourite books are marked up with my thoughts and insights. When I go back and re-read the books I can see how I've changed in my understanding of the book. I totally understand that I can mark up ebooks as well, but I'd be terrified that my notes would disappear from certain devices.
Or water damage, or forgetting it on the bus/plane, or even damaged from something heavy landing on it.
Even if Amazon's selling 180 ebooks for every 100 hardcovers, not every one of those ebook sales was a choice between an ebook and a hardcover; many are a choice between an ebook and a paperback.
Obviously, ebook sales are still growing, but even limiting that number to just Amazon (which is naturally pushing the Kindle), it's still a little misleading.
Not all devices. Sony's ereader, for example, has no remote access, and can be used entirely on an un-networked pc. Oh, and by the way, Amazon, when you're coming up on the wrong side of Sony on a digital rights disucssion on Slashdot, that should tell you something.
Power and DRM aren't the only problems. You also have to deal with the reliability and durability of the device. I don't want to have to buy a new one every 3 to 5 years because of a blown cap, an intermittent button, faded screen or some mandatory "upgrade" to accommodate a format change.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
It has, but the population was all of 24 people, all of which had never picked up an ebook before.....and they read for 20 minutes, hardly a book's worth. Also, they read the same text 4 times, no one knows how the huge selection of 24 people were chosen, and no one knows how old they were as yet. So no, not really.
I have a nook and my problem is that a lot of the technical books either don't have e-books, or they only have the amazon topaz format. So really I have no choice but to buy the hard copy...... Hopefully this will change. From what I understand Topaz format means the publisher pays amazon a small amount to scan the book into a format which can be re-flowed but isn't very good. And a full fledged mobi pocket/ebook requires more effort from publishers to make that format. This is even true of "Coders at Work" which while not a technical book, would be fun to read. But I don't want to have it sitting on my shelf if I'm just going to read it once and probably not go back. Your choices are PDF or TOPAZ, none of which work that well on Nook. And even Kindle users complain about Topaz books not reflowing well. Of course if I had an iPad the PDF would probably be fine. So maybe for technical books iPad is the way forward... Still for reading fiction the Nook/Kindle/other eInk readers are pretty nice...
Here's the big one that keeps me from moving to e-books.
Format wars.
As far as I can tell, a couple of the leading readers are ties exclusively to book stores, and each sells a proprietary format.
If there was one industry standard that all titles were available in, regardless of the supplier, then I'd be in more of a hurry to shell out for a reader.
And, to the point of the article, I don't think I have bought a hardcover if there was a paperback available (or scheduled to be available). The words are the important part. If I can have 3 paperbacks for the cost of 1 hardcover, why wouldn't I?
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"I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
So, I have books on my shelf from the 1960s. Sure, they're old and tattered but still readable. What happens if Amazon goes out of business in 30 years and my Kindle is dead? What if I buy a Nook and Barnes and Noble goes out of business in 15 years? I can't really move DRM'd stuff over to another e-reader can I? Or is that something that we'll be able to do one day? I've always liked the durability of books. Sure, they can be destroyed but they are physical "things" - not bits stored somewhere.
The real problem with those prices is the publishers. Publishers don't view ebooks as a revenue stream, they see them as a technology that cannibalizes physical book sales. So, they don't price ebooks with the mindset that it is basically 100% margin--instead, they're thinking "how much of the cover price on a hardback or paperback am I losing on this deal?" And that is the basis for the ebook pricing. It makes sense if all you care about is preserving your dying business model.
Basically, publishers still don't take books seriously, and they price them as such.
Check out my world simulator thingy.
Assuming these are not purely rhetorical questions...
Are you OK with Amazon's ability to remove books from your eReader - without your consent?
I don't love it, but if push comes to shove, arrr, there be ways to be carvin' out me fair use rights in international waters.
How do you back up your reader?
Option #1: Via USB.
Option #2: Amazon (I have a Kindle) will let me download as many copies of the books I've bought that I wish to any reader associated with my account.
When it dies, would you lose your books?
Nope. Well, unless I had no other devices to read them on and was unwilling to buy another.
Would you take it with you to the beach, read it in the bath? Have it go repeatedly through the X-ray machines at airports?
Yes, yes, yes. In fact, one of the biggest draws for me is not trucking a dozen books with me on vacation.
I lend books occasionally to friends. How do you do that with your reader?
You generally can't, unless you have B&N's Nook, in which case you sometimes can do so in a limited way. Or unless you're willing to loan the reader.
Personally, I hate loaning books, because I like mine in fairly pristine condition and almost everyone I've ever let borrow one has beat the shit out of it. YMMV.
On the other hand, because both my Kindle and my wife's Kindle are associated with the same Amazon account, I can buy one copy of a book and we both can read it at the same time. That's one nice feature over dead trees, if not one that's helpful to everyone.
Short of using physical force, I can read my paper books any time I choose, privately and without restriction.
Sure -- but you have to plan ahead about what you want to read. In most cases, for me, that isn't at all an issue, but any time I'll be away from home for more than a couple days (vacations, business travel, etc.) it's really nice to know that anything I can easily carry everything I want to read in one hand. No more buying some trashy paperback in an airport bookstore because a flight delay has left me stuck in a strange airport overnight with nothing left to read, etc.
Overall -- yes, e-books are a trade-off: you lose some freedom, you gain some different freedom and convienience; whether that's a good trade or not depends on you.
So I could buy a proprietary device to read a proprietary format (which I also have to purchase) which will be obsolete in 3 years, or I can buy a physical book and still have it (perfectly readable!) in 25 years?
Er...thanks, Amazon, but I'll pass. Give me a book made 'o paper. (May as well buy a hardcover. Paperbacks are so expensive anymore that I feel ripped off spending 8 bucks on something that disposable.)