E-Book Sales Have Tripled In the Last Year

destinyland writes "The Association of American Publishers revealed today that e-book sales have tripled in the last year. Sixteen publishers reported that in February e-book sales totaled more than $90.3 million, a 202.3% increase over e-book sales in February of 2010. Meanwhile, sales of adult hardcover books have dropped 43%, while mass-market paperback sales dropped 41.5% (earning just $46.2 million and $29.3 million, respectively). The book publishing association acknowledged that readers have 'made e-books permanent additions to their lifestyle,' arguing that publishers 'are constantly redefining the timeless concept of "books"' and identifying new audiences they can serve through emerging technologies. 'It's nice to see that book publishers are aware of the changes rocking their industry,' notes one e-book blog, 'and that they're approaching it with a sense of history.'"

In other news..

[Anonymous Coward]

Publishing costs have gone down to approximately nil, while revenues have remained stable and profits have jumped sky high.

Why the fuck should we pay more than a dollar for a file? People paying $20+ for an ebook (the link below shows some close to the price of a modest house) aren't just stupid, they're fucking stupid. There's no reason you should pay that much beyond enriching the greedy publishers and sellers like Amazon - I don't see licensing or odd behind-the-scenes costs (again, see below) as real costs, since it's always about artificial scarcity and silently inflating revenues.

http://askville.amazon.com/100-expensive-books-amazon/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=240635

Re:Note to Publishers: I'm Done with Paper

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad you cannot share a book you find interesting, unless you give her your kindle. Remember those days when we were kids, when we used to read it and pass it to our friends when we were done because they were "freaking awesome!!11!". :(

I am all for ebooks, they save environment and everything (till it gets to the point where people start tossing out their kindles and nooks). But there just has to be a way to enable sharing.

The Problem is Still An Outdated Publisher's Model

[sarbonn]

I'm a novelist who has been published by legacy publishers (old style of publishing). As a writer who has moved over to the e-reader market, I've been doing a lot of networking with a lot of writers who are writing specifically for Kindle and Nook markets. What's interesting is that publishers still want to force their tiny royalty schedule onto writers, even though the costs to the publishers have gone to practically nothing. Sure, in the beginning, a publisher puts forth a bit of the upfront costs (including an advance), but what then happens is that the writer receives a tiny fraction of the profit. This was somewhat fine with the legacy model, but now with e-readers, publishers STILL want to keep 90 percent of the profit. One of my publishers sent me an email informing me that because my sales were good, they were going to "reward" me with 20 percent of ebook sales. Yet, when I put books directly onto the Kindle, I received 70 percent of the profit (Amazon keeps 30 percent). Until publishers start moving into the future of this dynamic, the industry is going to make a move much like the music industry did. Right now, publishers are scrambling to maintain control, because the only real positive they have in their favor is that they used to be able to get your books into a bookstore. Now, anyone can get onto the Internet and Amazon. All they have left to offer is marketing, and strangely enough, about ten years ago, unless you were a Stephen King level of writer, they weren't doing any marketing for lower level writers. Which means, the publishing industry is about to implode.

Re:Publishing industry is dead...

[0123456]

I think we're going to see dramatic changes in publishing, but not to that extent. Self-publishing is great if you've already built up a reputation through print publishing, but for someone who's just starting out as a writer they're stuck with trying to differentiate themselves from the 99% of self-published fiction that's simply dire.

Having a known publisher's logo on your ebook is going to be beneficial for quite some time, if only to say 'give this book a try, it's not crap like all those other ones you've looked at'. Plus most writers want to write, not spend time marketing, creating book covers, etc.

Re:Publishing industry is dead...

[0123456]

I have never in my life looked for a publisher's mark to determine if a book is good.

You didn't need to, because if it didn't have a publisher's mark on the cover it wasn't on the bookstore shelf. Getting into a bookstore was pretty much impossible for self-published fiction for the last few decades, which is why self-publishing has only become popular again now that it's become so easy.

Seriously, I looked at about a hundred self-published ebook samples recently. Most of them were dire, most of the rest were barely readable and the only ones I considered buying were the books that had previously been published in print but the rights had reverted to the author who was self-publishing them as ebooks.

I'd love to support more self-published authors, but I'm having a hard time finding any I can read more than two pages of without wanting to throw the ebook across the room.