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Survey Says — eBooks Are Good for the Book Business

Survey Says — eBooks Are Good for the Book Business

by on May 15, 2013 in eBook News

Fixed Layout Vs. Standard eBook“Of course they are!”

Perhaps these statistics aren’t all that surprising, but according to the New York Times, eBooks were good for the book business in 2012. A recent BookStats survey of roughly 1,500 publishers (including the big six) shows that:

* eBook sales in fiction were up 42% from the year before — thanks in part to the growing popularity of the romance genre following the “Fifty Shades of Grey” phenomenon.

* eBook sales accounted for $1.8 billion.

* eBook sales in nonfiction grew 22% to $484.2 million.

* Children’s and YA eBook sales increased 117 percent ( to $469.2 million).

* eBooks accounted for 20% of publisher’s revenues in 2012, up from 15% the year before.

* Sales of print formats were flat or on the decline; eBooks and audiobooks were on the rise.

* Revenue from brick-and-mortar bookstores dropped 7%; online sales (through retailers like Amazon) rose 21%.

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Why More Established Authors Are Starting to Self-Publish

Why More Established Authors Are Starting to Self-Publish

by on April 17, 2013 in eBook Distribution, eBook News, Self Publishing

David Mamet Beginning to Self-PublishPulitzer Prize-winning playwright and author David Mamet is the latest in a string of established writers who are starting to self-publish, according to this story from The New York Times.

“Basically I am doing this because I am a curmudgeon,” Mamet  is quoted as saying. “and because publishing is like Hollywood — nobody ever does the marketing they promise.”

Lack of marketing follow-through is often cited as the biggest reason established authors are switching from traditional publishing to a self-pub model.

The New York Times article says:

For one thing, as traditional publishers have cut back on marketing, this route allows well-known figures like Mr. Mamet to look after their own publicity.

Then there is the money. While self-published authors get no advance, they typically receive 70 percent of sales. A standard contract with a traditional house gives an author an advance, and only pays royalties — the standard is 25 percent of digital sales and 7 to 12 percent of the list price for bound books — after the advance is earned back in sales.

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eBooks Now a Quarter of US Trade Publishers’ Sales

eBooks Now a Quarter of US Trade Publishers’ Sales

by on April 12, 2013 in eBook News

eBook Sales BoomingeBooks accounted for almost a quarter of all US publishers’ sales in 2012

The exact figure was 22.55% according to a Mashable article summarizing the recent StatShot study by the Association of American Publishers.

The article paints a pretty sunny picture for the book business, saying:

Total industry revenues increased 6.2% to $7.1 billion, of which $1.54 billion came from ebooks. Net revenue from adult fiction/non-fiction and children’s/young adult books rose as well — though revenue in the third category, religious presses, did not.

It wasn’t just ebooks that sold well. Downloadable audiobooks and paperbacks also saw year-over-year increases, as did hardcover copies of books in the children’s/young adult category.

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BookBaby Authors Available in India through Kindle

BookBaby Authors Available in India through Kindle

by on August 27, 2012 in eBook Distribution, eBook News

Good news for BookBaby authors: Kindle just launched in India, opening Amazon’s giant selection of eBooks (including yours!) to many millions of new customers.

As long as you didn’t exclude India from your distribution territories in your BookBaby account, your book will be included in the over one million books available to Indian customers on Amazon.com.

The list price will be identical to the list price you’ve chosen for the Amazon.com store in the US, but the selling price will be converted into rupees. You will receive 35% of all your Kindle sales to Indian customers.

Read Amazon’s full press release HERE.

Sell your book for Kindle! 

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The Amazon/Kindle News Round-Up

The Amazon/Kindle News Round-Up

by on August 10, 2012 in eBook News

Already, August has been a busy month for Amazon. If you’ve been sunning on a beach somewhere this summer or actually getting some writing done, maybe you missed out on the latest Amazon/Kindle news. We’ll summarize below:

1. Amazon reports more eBooks sold in the UK than paper books.

According to a story on Red Orbit:

Amazon, the American company behind the Kindle ebook reader, has just revealed their UK portion of their ebook store is selling 114 ebooks for every 100 hardback or paperback books sold.

2. Amazon opens a new textbook rental service.

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More eBook Readers are Buying Physical Books

More eBook Readers are Buying Physical Books

by on August 9, 2012 in eBook News

According to a recent article on Shelf Awareness:

The percentage of e-book consumers who “exclusively or mostly” purchased book content in e-book format decreased from nearly 70% in August 2011 to 60% in May 2012.

In addition, the percentage of readers who purchase both eBook and print book formats rose from 25% to 34%.

What does this mean for authors?

Statistics like this prove that print books are not going away anytime soon, and that they’re still an important revenue stream for authors.  In a world where consumers have countless book-buying choices, you want to make sure you…

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Test Your eBook Smarts with the “The Trend of eReading” Infographic

Test Your eBook Smarts with the “The Trend of eReading” Infographic

by on August 9, 2012 in eBook News

The people at Infographics Labs have created a fun way to take “a closer look at the growing popularity of eBooks and eBook devices.”

Check it out and see if your assumptions about eBook sales and eReader usage are correct!

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Kobo’s eBook Store and Reader Come to Japan

Kobo’s eBook Store and Reader Come to Japan

by on July 5, 2012 in eBook News

Earlier this week, Kobo launched in Japan, bringing one of the world’s most popular eReaders and eBookstores to millions of new customers!

On July 19th, they’ll take this one step further by introducing a fully “localized” Kobo experience– featuring Japanese content, currency, and support.

For the equivalent of about $100 USD, Japanese consumers can now pre-order the Kobo Touch (but there are plans to roll out a Kobo tablet in the coming months).

According to Goodereader.com:

One of the most exciting elements about the new launch is that the firmware will use Epub3, which supports layouts unique to the Japanese language including vertical text and ruby characters. Kobo is the first company to fully adopt the ePUB 3.0 format for its Japanese eBookstore.

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eBook Sales Surpass Hardcover Book Sales in the U.S.

eBook Sales Surpass Hardcover Book Sales in the U.S.

by on June 20, 2012 in eBook News

According to a recent Mashable article, American publishers, for the first time, are earning more dough from eBooks than from hardcover book sales. 

So how much are eBooks bringing in? If you don’t include children’s books– $282.3 million in Q1 (a 28.4% increase from Q1 in 2011).

Children’s and YA eBook sales grew 233%. That’s $64.3 million!

Paperback books are still the big earners ($299.8 million for Q1), but that seems to be declining as more and more Americans purchase eReaders, tablets, and smartphones.

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Every Instance of “Kindled” in Tolstoy’s War and Peace Replaced with “Nooked”

Every Instance of “Kindled” in Tolstoy’s War and Peace Replaced with “Nooked”

by on June 6, 2012 in eBook News

The heated climate of competition and proprietary formats has resulted in a sadly amusing side-effect, a kind of brand name mad-libs where every occurrence of the word “kindled” in Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace was replace with “nooked.”

According to Ars Technica:

The best explanation, we think, comes from a commenter on the blog, who says “This obviously wasn’t done by Barnes & Noble, but by the publisher who submitted the book to Barnes & Noble. They created a Kindle version of this public domain book first, realized they used ‘Kindle’ somewhere in their submission, and did a quick find-and-replace to change ‘Kindle’ to ‘Nook’-never once thinking it would affect the book’s text rather than just whatever they put in the title page.”

Bad proofreader, bad!

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