Mike Shatzkin, whose posts are always interesting and informative, has a look at how e-book vs. print book sales comparisons can be confusing. When Amazon o rother stores that sell both compare figures, Shatzkin explains, they’re making an apples-to-apples comparison of an e-book sold to a consumer to a print book sold to a consumer. But when publishers make the comparison, they are comparing e-books sold to consumers to shipments of books sold to retailers and wholesalers that consumers might buy or the stores might ship back—apples to oranges.
These different comparisons can lead to some strange optical illusions if considered uncritically. Most notably, they can make e-book penetration numbers appear to fall, though it does not make sense that they should.
Since print books intended as Christmas presents are bought before the holiday, but e-books from e-book readers given for Christmas are bought after the holiday, this means that print books will have their largest shipments in the 4th quarter, while e-books will have a sales surge in the 1st quarter.
These different sales peaks make a lot of sense, and the difference in sales figure reporting is a reminder that we have to be careful how we interpret statistics from different sources. And if publishers are trying their best to prop up the ailing print side of their industry, it makes sense they would report figures that show them in their best light.
