E-book Nation: Did You Know?

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I just found very interesting stats for authors, publishers and readers at OnlineUniversities.com. They published an appealing and creative info-graphic how e-books are bought, used and how much they are appreciated.  Did you know: 

• The average e-book reader has read 24 books in the past 12 months, compared to 15 books by a non-e-book-consumer.
• Ownership of e-book readers doubled almost between December 2011 and January 2012 – in just one month!
• 30% of those who read e-content say they now spend more time reading.

Find out more on this attractive info-graphic:
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Brought to you by: OnlineUniversities.com

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More Revenue From e-Books

American publishers are now bringing in more revenue from e-books than hardcover books, according to a report published by the Association of American Publishers (AAP).

Audio-books also keep accelerating vs last year – as some experts have said, tied to ongoing popularity and acquisition of smartphones and mobile devices.

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The figures, which were posted on GalleyCat on Friday, show that net sales revenue from e-books exceeded that of hardcover books in the first quarter of the year: a first. The data was compiled from 1,189 publishers and did not include children’s books.

Collectively, adult e-books brought in $282.3 million in Q1. That’s an impressive 28.4% increase from the same period a year ago. Young adult and children’s e-books performed even better, catapulting 233% to $64.3 million. Sales of adult hardcover books grew too, but more modestly, up 2.7% to $229.6 million in Q1 2012.

What’s driving the growth?  Read the whole story at Mashable

 

Entrepreneurial Authors and Self-publishing

The e-book revolution is a blessing for both, readers and authors, entrepreneurial authors have the highest success of all when self-publishing.  I am predicting that e-Readers soon will be more common than a TV in households.

The old monopoly of agents and publishers controlling what and who gets published is totally broken. History proves that this elite is no better at judging the quality and potential success of books than the reading public.

Only a few bestseller authors are chosen by traditional publishers for the royal treatment —  often those who don’t need the support. Their books are everywhere. At the same time, though, the volume of online review sources has exploded. And the number of reviewers who review self-published and/or indie authors is climbing.  In addition, there are a host of websites that will feature your traditionally published novel. So it’s not as if promotion and support isn’t there–  it’s just moved online.

“During the last weeks, HarperCollins has seen its ebook sales growing almost 10 percent, week-on-week”.  And Random House: “We’ve seen e-book growth outstrip our total sales.”

Don’t forget: E-book readers tend to buy more books than none-ebooks readers.

 

 

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Are e-Books Really More Environmental-friendly?

Book and Kindle

More than 40% of all books ordered by book stores, big and small, are returned if they are not sold within weeks or a few months – an anachronistic, outdated sales model. These books go either to rummage tables at book sales and might find a buyer or they go directly to landfills. Same with magazines.  Not environmental-friendly? Read on:

“One eReader requires the extraction of 33 pounds of minerals. That includes trace amounts of exotic metals like columbite-tantalite, often mined in war-torn regions of Africa. But it’s mostly sand and gravel to build landfills; they hold all the waste from manufacturing wafer boards for the integrated circuits. An eReader also requires 79 gallons of water to produce its batteries and printed wiring boards, and in refining metals like the gold used in trace quantities in the circuits. A book made with recycled paper consumes about two-thirds of a pound of minerals. And it requires just 2 gallons of water to make the pulp slurry that is then pressed and heat-dried (lots of electricity) to make paper.”

Then there are other issues to compare: fossil fuels, greenhouse gases, health concerns, toxic impacts, reading costs, disposal etc.  See an article by Daniel Goleman and Gregory Norris, http://danielgoleman.info/2010/04/04/e-reader-versus-book-the-eco-math/

Conclusion:
After reading 40 to 50 books on your eReader, e-book reading is starting to become more environmental-friendly than book reading. But the most ecological way to read a book starts by WALKING to your local library.

 

 

e-Books in Japan

At the last Tokyo International Book Fair (one of the major publishing trade shows in Asia) the focus was heavily in e-books and digital media.  The paper book area seemed much quieter, compared with the hustle and bustle in the digital zone. The number of Japanese language e-book titles has not grown significantly since the last book fair.

Publishers still remain reluctant to convert their books into digital formats due to cost, as well as their own ongoing fears about digitization, potential closure of bookstores and danger for entire publishing industry.  Fixed pricing for print media is tolerated despite the country’s anti-trust policies, but not when it comes to digital content.  Paper book distribution in Japan is suffering from a number of factors, including a 40% return rate – a situation almost similar to Germany.

Japan overflows with digital technology, mobile phones are constantly used, and ultra high-speed Internet is much faster than in North America.  But despite all this, the e-book market in Japan remains small. Japans total book market for 2010 was valued at 18.6 billion, of which e-books comprised 806 million or 3.3% of the overall market. It is predicted that the Japanese e-book market will grow rapidly. Both the dropping price of e-readers and the wider adoption of smart phones in Japan could contribute to this growth.

Japan’s eBook stores are poorly placed to compete with Amazon.  Even some respected, well-funded stores have wasted time in solving the wrong problem. The stores of Rakuten (a domestic eRetailing powerhouse), Kinokuniya (the largest bricks and mortar bookstore chain) and Sony have pooled resources to ensure that consumers buying eBooks from one of their three stores can read these books on devices or apps associated with one of the other stores.

However, to compete against Amazon, the Japanese eBook stores must improve their services in several areas. Japans industry is not well-prepared for Amazon’s market entry. Amazon will undoubtedly be successful in Japan’s eBook market, but who will rise to the Amazon challenge.

 

The near Future of Books

Kindle e-Reader

Myriads of articles have already been written about the Kindle, Nook and iPad and how they have revolutionized the way people read. Many experts are forecasting that more than 90% of books will go straight to a digital state in the future. More interactive, dynamic literature shows up on e-Readers. Consumers flock to these devices for their ease of use, durability, portability and the fact that they clear up plenty of space on living room shelves.

Authors will grow even more media-savvy
The gap between readers and their favorite authors becomes more and more narrow. Through Facebook, Twitter, foren and blogs, writers can completely bypass the agents and managers and publishers and go straight to the readers themselves. Authors feel as if the trend will continue, they need a viable internet life. Failure to do so, they fear, compromises their chances of getting picked up for publication and capturing the interest of readers — and their money. The industry will probably experience an upswing of writers eagerly embracing social media and blogging in order to promote their work.

Memoirs expand as a genre
Autobiography and memoirs have always been around, but over the past few years have enjoyed more and more popularity — even blending with other genres such as business and travel guides, self-help and how-to books, comics and plenty more. Books will no longer have a minimum length, writers now have a platform to release the works they want people to read on their own terms.

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are more than 560 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

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