This blog runs about 2 posts a month on Publishing, and here are trends I've noticed from my research:
- Amazon sells more eBooks than Hardcover books: This was one of the earliest trends this year, based on Amazon's Q1 results. This trend accelerated in the later part of the year, selling 3 times as many books in the first half of the year, compared to 2009. Bringing me to..
- Ebooks sales doubled from 5% of the overall books sold to closer to 10% of the books sold (Association of American Publishers). Ereader owners also read on average 3 more books each month than before.
- E-readers Proliferated: New e-readers entering India and Multiplying like Rabbits. Some estimated Christmas Day Kindle sales to be around a million units (Jeff Bezos said that this day sales was the largest ever in Kindle history). Kindle now is the #1 best-selling product on Amazon, surpassing Harry Potter #7.
- Reading on Mobiles and other Devices: Reports from Apple iStore show that iBooks is one of their top downloads. B&N Nook has a desktop reading device, and of course several other great independent Mobile/notebook readers like Stanza are widely used.On Christmas, Apple's iBooks e-reader is the #1 most-downloaded free iPad app, while Amazon's Kindle app is #9.
- Censorship: Several times this year, Amazon was in trouble for deleting books from Kindles, and for (perhaps accidentally) dropping GLBT books from their listings.
- Closing of indie bookstores: While my favorite bookstore in Bangalore still exists, news reports suggest a struggle to survive elsewhere. While Independent stores are probably the hardest hit, we should remember that Borders and other mainstream stores shut several outlets this year. Google eBooks launched with options for local retailers to sell, hopefully this helps keep folks in business.
- Rise of YA: Inevitable, sustained for over two years and massive - this trend has resulted in more teens reading, and also a rise in adults reading Young Adult books.
- An Aptara Survey of 600 publishers does a great dive into the impact of ebooks on Publishing: The main eBook production challenge facing publishers is eReader/content format compatibility issues, the same as in our first survey. Even with a nearly universal eBook format standard (EPUB), today's highly fragmented eReader market makes quality eBook production a moving target.
I referenced this list in parts, to flesh out some of my points, from Julie's Book Hooked Blog.
2011 Trend Spotting: Content is King: View
What do you think? Do you have any you would like to add?
What do you think? Do you have any you would like to add?
I love reading this kind of stuff. I get all, 'well I never knew that!' and 'really!' lol. I didn't know Amazon could actually delete items off your Kindle once you'd bought them though. That is so not on. It's on a par with stealing in my mind if I've paid my money for the goods. They wouldn't visit and raid each house they'd sold a hard copy to would they? Huh. Ok rant over :-D. Loving that ereaders are becoming so popular too. Maybe the prices will start to come down now.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
ReplyDelete@Bookworm - Well, I am so happy you liked it :) That was exactly the sort of year sum-up I was going for!
And I can't wait till the prices come down either!
Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting on The Weird sisters...glad I made you interested.
ReplyDeleteI love when that happens.
THANKS again.
Great post. I didn't realize that the e-books had surpassed printed books on Amazon. I just uploaded two of my books for Kindle and will be interested to see how sales compare with printed book sales.
ReplyDeleteAnn
@Ann - You are in the right place, I would love to find out the ebook vs. paper sales too! I hope you sell well overall :)
ReplyDeleteThose e-book stats are depressing. I'm concerned about their potential for diminishing the printed word.
ReplyDeleteWow thanks for sharing this. Very helpful.
ReplyDelete