Don’t Stop the Presses! Printed Books Are Growing
Despite dire predictions, printed books enjoy sales growth while ebooks have hit a plateau. A pleasure vs. work metric.
April 18, 2015
by Avi Salzman
Just two years ago ebooks seemed to be an existential threat to printed books, leading to predictions that at least 50% of books would be read in digital form. Regular books would become “printed, bound media artifacts,” as Gary Shteyngart put it in his dystopian novel Super Sad True Love Story.
Those predictions have fallen apart. After rising from 17% of trade-book sales in 2011 to 23% in 2012, digital sales have plateaued, according to the Association of American Publishers. Printed books are not disappearing: In the first quarter, publishers sold 3% more printed books than the year before, data firm Nielsen says. “There has been an enormous sigh of relief [from publishers],” says AAP Vice President Tina Jordan. “We are at an equilibrium in terms of formats.”
“I think consumers have decided on formats they want to buy in,” says Nielsen Book President Jonathan Nowell. At a focus group with young readers, Nowell found even teenagers willing to put down their devices. “They use digital devices for schoolwork and read print books for pleasure,” he says. “Everyone has an iPhone now, so having one doesn’t say anything about you. But your choice of reading material does.”
Source: Barron's
Hugh Howey would beg to differ. As the major publishers have raised their ebook prices above $9.99, they're seeing sales level off. Indy authors are seeing sales rising as a result. (Nielsen cannot track these authors, so it doesn't show up on their surveys.)
ReplyDeleteSee authorearnings.com for more information.
A friend of mine posted a link to this on his blog and his posting received this comment:
ReplyDeleteActually ebook sales are still rising. Whenever you look at the surveys that say otherwise, they're quoting Bookscan figures, which track the New York publishers only (many indy authors don't put ISBNs on their ebooks).
Over the last year, the Big 5 have reached new agreements with Amazon regarding pricing of ebooks. Their agreements allow the Big 5 to set the ebook price, which typically is more than $9.99. They do this to protect their paper sales. Those of us who price below $9.99 are not affected, and are even seeing sales go up.
For more proof, I'll direct you to www.authorearnings.com[*], where Hugh Howey and an unnamed data cruncher have been gleaning Amazon rankings for ebook sales and came up with some interesting conclusions.
http://booksinq.blogspot.com/2015/08/reality-check.html?showComment=1439742165152#c4358133140970065261