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E-Book Sales Have Tripled In the Last Year

Posted by Soulskill on from the now-we-only-kill-trees-out-of-spite dept.

destinyland writes "The Association of American Publishers revealed today that e-book sales have tripled in the last year. Sixteen publishers reported that in February e-book sales totaled more than $90.3 million, a 202.3% increase over e-book sales in February of 2010. Meanwhile, sales of adult hardcover books have dropped 43%, while mass-market paperback sales dropped 41.5% (earning just $46.2 million and $29.3 million, respectively). The book publishing association acknowledged that readers have 'made e-books permanent additions to their lifestyle,' arguing that publishers 'are constantly redefining the timeless concept of "books"' and identifying new audiences they can serve through emerging technologies. 'It's nice to see that book publishers are aware of the changes rocking their industry,' notes one e-book blog, 'and that they're approaching it with a sense of history.'"

25 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. And yet by xMrFishx · · Score: 2

    One still has to buy an ebook even if they own it in paper, pay twice why don't you? In addition, should one want an ebook alone, the cost tends to be comparative to the paper format, or sometimes more, and let us not even mention DRM. I'm waiting for the costs of ebooks to drop to something more reasonable and comparative to the cost of creation/distribution (mostly distribution and production; writing costs will be the same as paper). Admittedly I may be waiting a while, so in that time I'll continue to buy paper books, whilst the whole world of copyleft implodes upon itself and creates a worm hole to L-space.

    1. Re:And yet by AF_Cheddar_Head · · Score: 2

      While I agree that it would be nice for e-books to be cheaper why do individuals insist on comparing the price of a newly released e-book to a paperback when most books are released first as hard covers which typically run from 20-30 dollars. Following the same model newly released ebooks at the price of 10 dollars are half the price of the competition.

      By the way most libraries have an e-book shelf that you can use to borrow from for the cost of a library card FREE.

    2. Re:And yet by Defenestrar · · Score: 4, Informative

      Oh, you mean like Baen. And they only charge less for some books - others they give you for free and have found that it increases their sales for related books. Oh and on some of their newer hardcover books they've been including a CD with DRM free share-with-your-friends-requested ebooks of all the previous books in the series (i.e. Cryoburn of Bujold's Vorkosigan adventures).

      Ultimately it'll be the market which decides how this plays out, but I know where I'm going to vote with my dollars.

    3. Re:And yet by geekoid · · Score: 2

      Because Hard Covers are an addition to a collection for most people, THAT is why they can charge a premium.

      The cover type is irrelevant when talking about eBooks. It's just data, and it is priced way too high, for now. Looking at sales numbers, authors make more money selling an eBook at 99 cents then at full price.
      Publishing house will nearly go away in the next decade. It's to easy and to lucrative to self publish an ebook. 1000 bucks and you can get widely published among every ebook type, and you get 60-70% of each sale.

      Here is an example:
      Rothfuss new eBook: 15dollars
      Dashell's 'Red Harvest (1929) 10 dollars.

      IF they want to try and leverage the early bird money, charge 4.99 for a year, then 99 cents.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    4. Re:And yet by russotto · · Score: 2

      Don't bother. Science fiction has rarely made for great literature (notwithstanding a few works that are IMHO true contributions to the literary canon), but Baen was like the dregs of the genre.

      SF diverged from "literature" around the time of Wells, and despite a few misguided attempts by a few authors (such as Vonnegut), it's remained separate. Literature has largely come to mean self-important, vacuously self-referential drek, whose quality is determined by how unreadable it is; the more unreadable, the better. Whereas SF is still SF. Baen certainly avoids any pretension at "literary SF", and they've got their share of crap. They've also got a lot of good stuff, and even some of their crap is at least a fun read.

      They also publish in eBook form some classic SF, which today's literati might grudgingly accept -- but the literati at the time would (and did) dismiss out of hand, as you do today.

  2. Note to Publishers: I'm Done with Paper by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wife has a Nook. I have a Kindle. We are each inseparable from these devices, which are each currently filled with easily a two-year backlog of books waiting to be read. If you distribute a book, and there is no electronic version of it available, it's gonna have to be the Word of God newly etched on tablets for either of us to even consider buying it.

    1. Re:Note to Publishers: I'm Done with Paper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Too bad you cannot share a book you find interesting, unless you give her your kindle. Remember those days when we were kids, when we used to read it and pass it to our friends when we were done because they were "freaking awesome!!11!". :(

      I am all for ebooks, they save environment and everything (till it gets to the point where people start tossing out their kindles and nooks). But there just has to be a way to enable sharing.

    2. Re:Note to Publishers: I'm Done with Paper by mdielmann · · Score: 2

      I don't buy DRM-encumbered eBooks. If anyone wants to borrow a book from me, electronic or otherwise, it can be done. Moreover, I can read my ebooks on any device I have that supports them, and can easily convert between formats with calibre.

      --
      Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
  3. In other news.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Publishing costs have gone down to approximately nil, while revenues have remained stable and profits have jumped sky high.

    Why the fuck should we pay more than a dollar for a file? People paying $20+ for an ebook (the link below shows some close to the price of a modest house) aren't just stupid, they're fucking stupid. There's no reason you should pay that much beyond enriching the greedy publishers and sellers like Amazon - I don't see licensing or odd behind-the-scenes costs (again, see below) as real costs, since it's always about artificial scarcity and silently inflating revenues.

    http://askville.amazon.com/100-expensive-books-amazon/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=240635

  4. Re:regauarding e books by 0123456 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I still fail to see why anyone would want to spend money on an e book. I like to be able to read a book ... not worry over when they will revoke the book from "my reader. "

    Weird. All the e-books I own are DRM-free, so I can do whatever I want with them for my own use.

    You're right though, I wouldn't want to pay paperback prices for an e-book with DRM which can be revoked at any time. That's why I avoid buying any which do have DRM.

  5. Re:regauarding e books by jbrandv · · Score: 2

    My wife, an avid reader, reads about a book a day. Try carrying 10-15 books on a vacation and you'll realize one of the benefits of e-books. She can now carry 100s of books at a time any where she goes. And they are all DRM free. Yes, I've had to remove the DRM from some of them but they are DRM free now. ;-)

  6. Experience by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I bought a Kindle for my wife as a Christmas present a few years back. To be frank, my main purpose was to address the problem we had with ever-growing, increasingly-unstable, easy-to-trip-over piles of books scattered somewhat randomly around our house (she's always been a serious book hound). She wasn't completely sold on the idea, but it only took her a week or so to completely fall in love with the device.

    Then this past winter I got one when I found I was going to be "arm less" for six weeks due to shoulder surgery. I also wasn't sold on the device, but have quickly come around. In some ways it's actually more convenient to read than a paper book! And while my initial thought was "Buttons? I dunno, multi-touch is much better" - I now think the navigation buttons are a better way to go. You can easily turn pages on a Kindle using the same hand you're holding the "book", which is not true of an iPad - or even a paper book.

    I am bothered by the DRM issue, and initially it held me back from making the move to an e-reader. But since I currently can (and do) strip the DRM from my e-books and copy them to my media backup disk, these concerns don't stop me from using the technology. But I'm hoping someone in authority will eventually step forward with a "Thoughts on DRM" missive regarding e-books - as we've seen with music, selling people DRM-encumbered media has potentially dire long-term consequences; and it's not a given we'll always have the ability (even "underground") to remove it.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Experience by nedlohs · · Score: 2

      To be frank, my main purpose was to address the problem we had with ever-growing, increasingly-unstable, easy-to-trip-over piles of books scattered somewhat randomly around our house

      There's this new invention called the bookcase.

  7. e-Books Still a Scam by wall0645 · · Score: 2

    I refuse to buy e-Books until the prices come down to lower than paperbacks (Kindle books usually same price as paperbacks) and I have similar rights per their use as I have with a paper book (which I can sell and lend). And I'm certainly not going to buy them if they are locked to a device or a certain company's devices.

  8. Ebooks are great by anethema · · Score: 2

    I know slashdot tends to be a little Luddite-ish when it comes to ebooks/ereaders for some reason, but as an avid reader I couldn't be more happy.

    When I go to Mexico on vacation, I usually go through a book every day or two. This means I would almost need an entire suitcase for books. With my Kindle, I just bring it! When I still manage to run out of books, the kindle has 3G damn near anywhere on earth for free, and I simply buy more. I have any book I want within seconds pretty much.

    They are FAR more comfortable to read with than a real book as they are light and small, and don't have a fat side depending how far into the book you are. Nothing more annoying than starting a book and wanting to lay on your left side to read it. You also never have the problem of dry fingers having trouble getting a grip on the page, or accidentally grabbing 2 pages by accident.

    Some people like to show off their book collections, or bring up that dropping a book and an ebook reader off a building only the book is more likely to survive, but for the massive massive convenience benefits, I suggest you store your ego, and take better care of your stuff. I'll worry about not being able to get new books (even though you can put text files on it over USB fine) when Amazon goes out of business.

    This way books are cheaper, faster/easier to get, lighter, and easier to read. For me it is a no brainer.

    --


    It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
  9. The Problem is Still An Outdated Publisher's Model by sarbonn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm a novelist who has been published by legacy publishers (old style of publishing). As a writer who has moved over to the e-reader market, I've been doing a lot of networking with a lot of writers who are writing specifically for Kindle and Nook markets. What's interesting is that publishers still want to force their tiny royalty schedule onto writers, even though the costs to the publishers have gone to practically nothing. Sure, in the beginning, a publisher puts forth a bit of the upfront costs (including an advance), but what then happens is that the writer receives a tiny fraction of the profit. This was somewhat fine with the legacy model, but now with e-readers, publishers STILL want to keep 90 percent of the profit. One of my publishers sent me an email informing me that because my sales were good, they were going to "reward" me with 20 percent of ebook sales. Yet, when I put books directly onto the Kindle, I received 70 percent of the profit (Amazon keeps 30 percent). Until publishers start moving into the future of this dynamic, the industry is going to make a move much like the music industry did. Right now, publishers are scrambling to maintain control, because the only real positive they have in their favor is that they used to be able to get your books into a bookstore. Now, anyone can get onto the Internet and Amazon. All they have left to offer is marketing, and strangely enough, about ten years ago, unless you were a Stephen King level of writer, they weren't doing any marketing for lower level writers. Which means, the publishing industry is about to implode.

    --
    Sarbonn's blog: http://www.sarbonn.com/blog
  10. Publishing industry is dead... by crabel · · Score: 2

    One of my favorites autors (mostly selfpublishing nowadays) predicts that it will collapse by the end of the year. I guess he is right, e.g. there is this self-publishing guy, who sells a couple of 100,000 ebooks per year for 99 cent. And that other guy, who refused 500 grand and selfpublishes instead. http://www.michaelastackpole.com/?p=2436 http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/03/09/0618234/Crime-Writer-Makes-a-Killing-With-99-Cent-E-Books http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/03/22/0125218/Best-Selling-Author-Refuses-500k-Self-Publishes-Instead

    1. Re:Publishing industry is dead... by 0123456 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think we're going to see dramatic changes in publishing, but not to that extent. Self-publishing is great if you've already built up a reputation through print publishing, but for someone who's just starting out as a writer they're stuck with trying to differentiate themselves from the 99% of self-published fiction that's simply dire.

      Having a known publisher's logo on your ebook is going to be beneficial for quite some time, if only to say 'give this book a try, it's not crap like all those other ones you've looked at'. Plus most writers want to write, not spend time marketing, creating book covers, etc.

    2. Re:Publishing industry is dead... by xMrFishx · · Score: 2

      It might be interesting then to establish a quality mark for self-publishers as a way of denoting quality reading. I guess this would really be a publisher who operated entirely around ebooks, but didn't run at the costs of a major publisher. I'm thinking small percent profit instead of $Everything for the sake of handling operating costs. I'd say have a free one, which could also work, but then you'd get a scratch mine scratch yours system where quality could slip, thus defeating the point of the system. A small cost system would work though as it would barely raise the overhead cost of an Ebook for the sake of having a third party body vouch for it.

    3. Re:Publishing industry is dead... by 0123456 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I have never in my life looked for a publisher's mark to determine if a book is good.

      You didn't need to, because if it didn't have a publisher's mark on the cover it wasn't on the bookstore shelf. Getting into a bookstore was pretty much impossible for self-published fiction for the last few decades, which is why self-publishing has only become popular again now that it's become so easy.

      Seriously, I looked at about a hundred self-published ebook samples recently. Most of them were dire, most of the rest were barely readable and the only ones I considered buying were the books that had previously been published in print but the rights had reverted to the author who was self-publishing them as ebooks.

      I'd love to support more self-published authors, but I'm having a hard time finding any I can read more than two pages of without wanting to throw the ebook across the room.

  11. Culture crash by h1q · · Score: 2

    I can envision a future with pervasive encrypted permissions in which a glitch or attack will cause us to lose access to a significant part of our writings and media for an indeterminate period of time.
    A world without open source books and readers will be like giving us Harkonnen heart-plugs.

  12. Re:regauarding e books by 0123456 · · Score: 2

    So where do you get your E-Books from then?

    So far I've been buying older books from Smashwords; a number of previously published authors are using it to sell their backlist of books that are out of print, and most are available in multiple formats from DRM-free Kindle files to plain text.

    BTW, there was also an interesting thread on a writing site recently where someone who worked for a publisher was saying that pretty much everyone at the sharp end of ebook publishing in those companies was well aware that DRM didn't work and was costing them sales, but the people at the top still insist on including it (and charging the authors for doing so). So over time it's likely to go away.

  13. ebooks in brick-and-mortar bookstores, please. by hendrikboom · · Score: 2

    I like to browse in bookstores with physical books. I haven't found any kind of e-browsing that competes with it. The only thing that's close to it is to download the entire book and page freely.

    To avoid overfilling my house with bookshelves, or putting shelves in front of shelves and making them inaccessible, I've decided to use e-books whenever possible (they still don't work well for art books, for example).

    When I decide to buy the book I'm browsing as a paper copy, I'd like to buy and download it on the spot. Even sweeter if the brick-and-mortar bookstore would get a cut of the price so I'm not pushing the place I browse out of business,

    -- hendrik

  14. Re:regauarding e books by darkwing_bmf · · Score: 2

    I don't believe you can physically turn a dead tree book page 10x faster than an ebook can display a new e-ink page.

  15. Re:Profit Margins and Monopolies by Omestes · · Score: 2

    . Publishers have *very* slim profit margins, and supporting them lets them buy more works, which tends to increase the number of published books.

    I think that was part of his point. Who cares about publishers? The game should between readers and writers, everything else is superfluous fluff. Publishers are like music labels, ancient and archaic and holding back culture and progress to maintain an outdated and outmoded business model. Looking at how publishers handle ebooks, and more specifically ebook pricing, I find a hard time having much sympathy for them, myself.

    I do try to support other retailers that aren't Amazon, I bought a Nook instead of a Kindle. Not for that reason, but because its more open, and I trust B&N more after the whole Amazon 1984 fiasco. I am saddened at the death of Borders. Soon books will be like consumer electronics where I live, a complete monoculture dominated by one company (Best Buy and Fry's if you want an unpleasant adventure), or games (Gamestop, and only Gamestop).

    Though be honest, most of my books come from used bookstores. Book prices have become very bloated these days, and the advent of cursed "trade paperbacks" pretty much stopped me from really seeking new books out, unless their by authors I know. I used to rely on the library, but they turned into Blockbuster clones, only catering to people who want DVDs (and perhaps teen supernatural fiction... my local branch has no Steinbeck or Hemingway... none) Used bookstores are among to last awesome places in the world.

    Actually literature's worst enemy is probably the publisher, these days. Being hostile to ebooks, libraries, and pricing things as luxury goods (books, shouldn't they be cheap and ubiquitous, the more readers the better).

    That said, I have no problem with pirating ebooks when I already own the physical copy. I see it as no different than torrenting mp3s of albums I already own. If they made ebook prices sane, I'd probably just buy them instead, and I'd probably buy a whole of a lot more. Make ebooks competitive with the used market, and your customer base would expand. Make ebooks competative to new paperbacks and... well... I'm sure something happens, probably nothing good though.

    --
    A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey