Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
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.