Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

eBook Sales Outpace Hardbacks

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the sell-harder-son dept.

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."

13 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. love it by Lord+Ender · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I love my Kindle. I buy about one book per week. It's gotten to the point where if a book I'm looking for isn't available in ebook format, I simply don't buy that book. I want my entire library available to me anywhere I go. I don't want to haul around dead trees.

    The publishers who haven't released their books in ebook format are simply daft.

    --
    A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
    1. Re:love it by pvera · · Score: 4, Interesting

      We got two Kindles here, it is just too convenient to have the books available anywhere. With two of us in the house reading so much, we already had one wall covered with bookshelves and it was starting to get out of control (those things are dust magnets). Now all of our purchased eBooks are kept in a convenient location, we don't even have to worry about losing a book because the device fails.

      Even if I forget the Kindle when I leave the house, I can use the Blackberry client and pull whatever I was reading. The flexibility I get outweighs any concern I may have had about DRM and lock-in.

      --
      Pedro
      ----
      The Insomniac Coder
    2. Re:love it by cduffy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      *agree*.

      I'm a bit wary buying something I'll want to keep for decades encumbered with DRM -- my preferred publisher for technical ebooks is Manning, who makes everything available in unencrypted PDF -- but I'm thinking of moving from a house with lots of bookshelves to a tiny little condo downtown. Only the very, very best of my dead-tree library can come with me, so electronic format for future purchases Just Makes Sense.

      (I bought a Kindle DX due to the large-format screen and PDF support, but the lack of ePub support is unfortunate; if I were doing it again, I might think harder about an iRex).

    3. Re:love it by Itchyeyes · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I completely agree. The ability of an ebook to move to whichever device it's most convenient for me to read it on at the moment, be it my PC, iPad, Kindle, or Android phone, is really what makes the experience so worth it for me. When I first got my Kindle and the Amazon ebook selection was only around 200,000 titles, I often made exceptions when they didn't have a book I wanted and would buy the physical copy. However, the selection has increased so much since then that these days it just makes more sense for me to move on to a different title that is available in the format I want. Authors and publishers who refuse to release in a digital format are now losing about a sale to me about every other week.

    4. Re:love it by N7DR · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The publishers who haven't released their books in ebook format are simply daft.

      Or possibly they have read the contract that Amazon requires them to agree to in order to put content on their devices, and decided that giving all the rights to Amazon is not something that they want to do (I exaggerate, but not by a whole lot; basically the publisher gives up essentially all control of the presentation and distribution). Perhaps they are careful rather than daft.

  2. Re:Who buys hardbacks? by mikael_j · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I buy hardbacks when they're available but a lot of times I find that a book is only available as paperback. With a few books it even seems that while there are no new hardbacks being printed libraries are still able to get the latest edition as a hardback from somewhere, no wonder hardback sales are down when you can't even buy them most of the time...

    --
    Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
  3. Natural fit for travelers by Lifyre · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is not at all surprising especially for travelers or those who have limited space but like to read many books. As military my PRS-505 allowed me to bring and entire library with me for the size of a small notepad to Iraq as opposed to a half dozen books. The reading experience was close enough to reading a paperback that it isn't worth mentioning except for a few purists.

    The picture viewing and manga reading was also sublime. To me the pictures while grayscale looked like they could have been pencil drawn and were easily readable.

    The ONLY downside I found was the screen refresh but it wasn't much more than turning a page and easily adapted to.

    --
    I'll meet you at the intersection of "Should be" and "Reality"
  4. Re:Traditionalists shouldn't panic anyways by AdamsGuitar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Or, of course, the fact that some people like the way a book *feels*. The way a page feels when you turn it. While simulated page turns are nice eye candy, an e reader doesn't provide the tactile feedback of a physical object.

  5. Re:You cant hand an ebook to your friend... by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The e-Ink displays work by reflected light. So they should photograph quite nicely. So why bother with scanner? Set a digital camera on a tripod, set it to take one picture per second. Click on the next button one click per second. Should be easier than scanner.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  6. Call Bradbury to Revise Farenheight 451 by tekrat · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Now all they have to do to ban all books is just silently delete them remotely from your kindle while you sleep. No firemen required.

    And you'll have people in small camps living like vagrants reciting books to each other.

    We've already got the wall-sized TVs blaring idiot-shows at us all day long, so banning books can't be far behind.

    Never mind Orwell, we're closer to Bradbury's reality. Oh Montag, we need you!

    --
    If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
  7. Re:You cant hand an ebook to your friend... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Only one person goes through that effort, then everyone else who wants a digital copy will download it. Bookwarez is older than e-books.

    It's like arguing against selling digital music or movies because it makes it easier to copy -- Yeah, it does, but ripping DVDs/CDs happens anyways, at least this way you have a chance of making money.

    Wouldnt you rather let the people who want to have a digital copy be able to buy it, rather than forcing everyone to pirate it or go without?

  8. Re:You cant hand an ebook to your friend... by DragonWriter · · Score: 2, Interesting

    DRM which is *illegal* to remove.

    To the extent its preventing illegal copying, so what? The copying is illegal, but trivial cost and effort to do without the DRM. The DRM is illegal to remove, but trivial cost and effort. Net result: with or without the DRM, the illegal copying is illegal, and trivial in cost and effort.

    Where is the benefit of the DRM?

  9. Re:You cant hand an ebook to your friend... by fredjh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have two Nooks... believe me, I did not buy them for the "lend" feature, which is nearly pointless in it's implementation...

    SOME publishers "allow" some books to be lent... ONE TIME ONLY, and ONLY for fourteen days. After that, you can not lend it anymore.

    By buying into e-books (which I've done, I had my reasons why I ultimately thought it was a good way to go), you are removing any right to resale/donate you have with other books.

    Because of this fact, cost of books should not enter the equation for determining whether to buy an e-book reader or not... most of the paperbacks I looked into cost less than a dollar more than the e-book version, and you didn't give up your rights.

    --
    Stupid, sexy Flanders.