Market for eBooks to double in a year
According to Adobe Corporation's Terry White, eBook sales in 2010 reached just under $1 billion. For 2011, they are predicted to total $2.8 billion. Some explosive growth!*****
eBook Sales Drive Growth of Publishing
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The above is from BookStats; the Association of American Publishers and Book Industry Study Growth |
E-TEXTBOOKS IN THE NEWS:
Research firm Simba Information reports that sales for e-textbooks in the U.S. higher education market grew 44.3% to $267.3 million in 2011.
FACTOID #2:
According to Forrester Research, sales of electronic textbooks accounted for only 2.8 percent of the $8 billion domestic textbook market in 2010.
AND YET: today's kids expect to find e-book textbooks when they get to college.
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Bring your wallet to attend future book readings?
According to the New York Times, bookstores, including some of the most prominent around the country, have begun selling tickets or requiring a book purchase of customers who attend author readings and book signings, a practice once considered unthinkable.
The new practice is the response of many “Indy” book stores who are squeezed by the competition from on line retailers.
Typical fees are $5 to $10 a person to attend book events for stores that adopt the new practice, though many wave the ticket price if attendees buy a book.
According to several book store owners, the new practice was instituted in response to consumers who think of a book store as a library, not a business, and who browse with the intent of buying later from on line competitors.
Brick and mortar book retailers also say that the explosion of eBook sales, purchased on-line, is another reason stores need to charge for events. Some Indy book stores are fighting back by charging for author events, arguing that book stores are a business, not a showroom for on-line competitors.
Ecommerce book retailers often enjoy the additional competitive benefit of not having to charge sales tax for book sales, although Amazon especially, is battling several states that want to change this and impose a tax on Amazon sales to residents of their state.
The New York Times article notes that some stores obtain as much as 10 percent of store revenue from book events, holding as many as 200 a year.
According to the Times, both retailers and readers polled are divided on the new practice. The largest chain retailer, Barnes & Noble, has so far declined to charge for book events. |
