From Konrath’s A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog:
Publishers might be looking at enriched or enhanced ebooks as their new big-ticket items to replace hardcovers. But the major ebook retailer, Amazon, isn’t set up for video. Kindle isn’t even able to do color yet. That leaves Apple, and according to my numbers Apple is a very small part of the ebook market. I sell 200 ebooks a day on Kindle. On iPad, I sell 100 a month.
This is just a tiny part of a much longer post on The Changing Face of Publishing, and I suggest you go over and read the rest of what he has to say about the industry as a whole. A few snippets:
“It seems a lot of people are being dropped by their publishers ….”
“I’m sensing a shift. And this shift will likely prove fatal for many of the parties involved.”
“But these protests and professions of love [of paper books] apparently aren’t being followed up with ACTUALLY BUYING PRINT BOOKS. ”
“Publishers are publishing fewer books, dropping authors, and seem to be pushing forward with ebooks with no real business plan.”
Excellent article, especially the line: “But these protests and professions of love [of paper books] apparently aren’t being followed up with ACTUALLY BUYING PRINT BOOKS. ”
My husband and I began selling eBooks in early 2008 and found that the overall reaction to digital literature at that time was “What a nice idea, but I like paper books better; I like the FEEL of ‘real’ books better.” As the economy began to spiral downward, this number of times this phrase–or something similar–was uttered did not lessen, despite the fact that book sales were falling off, sharply. I still get emails about how paper books are better, from folks buying our eBooks at 1/2 or 1/4 of the price of paper books.
I cannot remember the last print book I purchased for myself. I have given a few as gifts to expectant parents, but for me it’s either e- or the library. At first it was the economy, but now I just like the space savings and portability of ebooks better. I can’t see myself ever going back to print books for most purchases, even if I have the money.