Ebook Sales Trends - 2007
February 11, 2008
eBook sales for the first 3 quarters of 2007 totaled reached $23 million for the top 12-13 trade publishers according to statistics released by the Amerian Publishers Association and the IDPF. We estimate that overall eBook sales are estimated to be about $46 million when sales from smaller publishers are included.
What accounts for the small level of eBook sales?
At BookToEbook we believe that the low level of eBook sales derives from;
1. The high price of eBook readers. The Sony reader costs $299 and the Amazon reader each costs about $399. At these prices we don’t see the average consumer buying an expensive reader when annual book purchases per capita are less than $200.
2. The fact that romance and cookbooks are account for the some of the largest market share among book buyers, and eBooks are not suited for this market. Romance novels cost less than $8 a book. A single eBook reader costs as much as 36+ romance novels.
Cookbooks typically have large sized pages, often with color photographs, that you can read while you are cooking. The screen size of an eBook reader is just to small and bland in comparison.
3. The price of eBooks themselves. Why purchase an eBook when the printed copy can be purchased for less from Amazon or BN.com
4. People afraid of losing Access to their eBooks. When Gemstars Rocket eBook shut down operations its users lost access to their library of eBooks, and no new books were released in this format. The danger of this happening with Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s Reader are greatly reduced; however, this remains a fear that lurks in the consumers mind.
5. Not all books are available as eBooks. The Sony Reader has only about 40,000 titles. The Amazon Kindle only 80,000 titles. Many books that people want to read are not available in the eBook format yet.
6. Publishers don’t promote their eBooks. When did you see a publisher advertise the eBook edition of one of their works. Hardly ever. Consumers know that they exist.
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