E-book Trends
I recently saw some rather shocking publishing statistics — growth in the e-book world has truly skyrocketed. According to the Association of American Publishers, in the month of June, e-books sales jumped 118.9%.
If we look at all of 2010, we see an enormous 204% growth in e-book sales.
Holy digital publishing, Batman! No wonder Amazon has sold more Kindle editions than hardcovers. Readers (myself included) are switching to the more accessible world of e-books, and the numbers suggest that there’s no turning back.
Meanwhile, sales of YA hardcovers grew by 19.6% in June. Yay! More people reading YA! Oh, but hold the phone… Looks like YA hardcovers have actually dropped 16.7% for 2010, and YA paperbacks have fallen 5%. Oh, poo.
Too bad AAP doesn’t list how those e-book sales break down. How many of those were YA? How many of those sales were pre-ordered copies of Mockingjay? (At least one sale from me!)
So tell me, who has an e-reader? I do, I do! I have a love affair with my Kindle. (I know, I know. Please don’t barrage me with your anti-Amazon sentiments.) My dad, brother, and sister all have Kindles too… And fabulous-crit-partner-Holly has a Nook she adores. We’re all bibliophiles, and we’ve all transitioned smoothly into e-books. Don’t get me wrong — I love hardcovers and paperbacks — but my shelves are full and I can’t afford German book prices.
Are you pro e-books are anti? What about YA novels — are you one of the many people avidly consuming them?
-S.
P.S. Is there a dash in “e-book”, or is the word sans dash with a space a là “e book”, or is it without a dash and without a space like “ebook”?
August 30, 2010 @ 8:32 pm
Nook – check
ebook convert – check
rabidly reading YA – check
still love my hardbacks – check
Of course you knew all this. 😉
August 31, 2010 @ 1:48 am
What is YA?
August 31, 2010 @ 7:03 am
Good question. I guess I should have defined my terms. YA = young adult. Like Harry Potter, Twilight, my novel, A Wrinkle in Time, etc. (notice I’m listing myself with the bigwigs)
August 31, 2010 @ 10:10 pm
Avec dash is preferred (or most used) for e-book, unlike email, sans dash. I read the first chapter of Spirit_Hunters and I look forward to reading the rest. I noticed a couple of typos. Do you want me to send them? You’ve probably already fixed them.
onestep_beyond
September 4, 2010 @ 4:25 am
My editor just told me a couple of days ago that in one year, e-book sales went from something like ~0.5% of revenue for the publishing industry (speaking in very coarse averages here) to something like ~8-10% of revenues (aggregated in the same way). Pretty eye-opening.
September 10, 2010 @ 5:54 am
Wow… That’s quite a jump. Heck, I bought your book in Kindle-format. At the time, it was instant gratification versus expensive German shipping. However, even if I lived in the States, I think I would still buy most books as e-books. Ease, cost, ease.