Comments on: Will Kindle crash Nielsen BookScan? http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/will-kindle-crash-nielsen-bookscan/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:55:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Tim Middleton http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/will-kindle-crash-nielsen-bookscan/comment-page-1/#comment-1062233 Tim Middleton Fri, 22 May 2009 00:00:31 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/?p=22318#comment-1062233 Well it is pretty easy to say unit sales are 35% Kindle editions if you don't have a third party confirming the sales channel which is the benefit of having Bookscan or BookNet in Canada. There isn't a conflict of interest in having sales reported that way, and exactly the point about isbn's - what do you track? Amazon cannot be trusted on reporting sales numbers. Well it is pretty easy to say unit sales are 35% Kindle editions if you don’t have a third party confirming the sales channel which is the benefit of having Bookscan or BookNet in Canada. There isn’t a conflict of interest in having sales reported that way, and exactly the point about isbn’s – what do you track? Amazon cannot be trusted on reporting sales numbers.

]]> By: Paula B. http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/will-kindle-crash-nielsen-bookscan/comment-page-1/#comment-1062141 Paula B. Thu, 21 May 2009 19:21:49 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/?p=22318#comment-1062141 Despite the fact that Amazon takes 65% of Kindle store proceeds, they do at least provide one nice benefit to writers who sell their stuff there. Not only can you watch your daily numbers in close to real time, but you can also download spreadsheets of each month's sales for your records. That's both units per title and dollars. Of course these numbers don't help market researchers like Nielsen, but they do provide incontrovertible proof of sales to prospective publishers. On another topic: I don't know if Amazon really has 75% of the ebook market, but there is a way they might be able to make that claim. I sell many units of my ebooks and articles through the Kindle Store. Of course at the prices I charge--usually 99 cents--I can sell boatloads and not make much money. But because Amazon is counting each of those sales, they might legitimately be able to claim a huge market share. Depends on the definition of an ebook sale. Dunno. Despite the fact that Amazon takes 65% of Kindle store proceeds, they do at least provide one nice benefit to writers who sell their stuff there. Not only can you watch your daily numbers in close to real time, but you can also download spreadsheets of each month’s sales for your records. That’s both units per title and dollars.

Of course these numbers don’t help market researchers like Nielsen, but they do provide incontrovertible proof of sales to prospective publishers.

On another topic: I don’t know if Amazon really has 75% of the ebook market, but there is a way they might be able to make that claim. I sell many units of my ebooks and articles through the Kindle Store. Of course at the prices I charge–usually 99 cents–I can sell boatloads and not make much money. But because Amazon is counting each of those sales, they might legitimately be able to claim a huge market share. Depends on the definition of an ebook sale. Dunno.

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