The Rise of the E-Book

[servalan]

Properly, the title of this entry should be The Rise of the E-Book and What It Doesn't Mean to Me.

Today, a Twitterer linked to yet another recent article about e-books and the future of publishing. This one was from the WSJ. You can read it for yourself, but I'll summarize here. With the use of pretty graphs and quotes from big name publishing

Comments

[d_aulnoy]

Excellent analysis. It's nice to see the economics debated by a professional who is *also* an avid reader: all too often, I feel like the debate gets only one side.

[servalan]

Thanks! I bet that the publishing houses *do* have the data I'm asking for here. (It wouldn't be conclusive, but we could do some decent statistical analysis with it.) Like you say, though, the problem is that the e-reader vs. publishing debate doesn't seem to get enough unbiased coverage.

[nightsinger]

I'm totally with you, wrt hardcovers being annoying (especially the damn dust jackets -- first thing I traditionally do is lose the damn things, even if I don't intend to).

And, yes, I also agree that ebook sales are much more comparable to paperback sales, in terms of the user doing the purchasing; it doesn't feel like as much of a "commitment" to buy an ebook or a paperback, so I'm more likely to do that on a whim than a hardcover.

I'm also more likely to be adventurous with an ebook -- after all, it's much easier to try something (especially with the "first chapter free" on the Kindle).

In short: yay, books!

[vicious_kitty]

People are often shocked that as a librarian I am a huge fan of eBooks. And I am watching all the articles about the effects of eBooks on the publishing industry. I know that for me, if I wasn't getting eBooks, it would be paperbacks or library books.

I would love part of the conversation to actually look at circulation numbers for major US libraries. I am willing to bet that some people have taken to using libraries more during the recession. And, I know that I have been using the library a lot more with my eReader.

If you find better data, pass it along, I would be interested.

[perfcangel]

Yeah, I really don't get why publishers constantly complain about ebooks. There have been stats about how people who read ebooks purchase more books (check the Teleread blog if you need the numbers), and I certainly believe it, especially with anecdotes like yours about the girl who immediately purchased the ebook: ebooks are totally accommodating to impulse buyers. Even if the profit margin is smaller, publishers can make more money by selling more books, and ebooks cost almost nothing to produce more of. So I roll my eyes anytime I hear a publisher complain. IMO they are just having a hard time adapting their business model to new media, and if they can't figure out how to be profitable with ebooks, someone else will.