> I'd also pick a nit: in my experience, ebook sales (and Amazon Kindle store sales in particular) are dwarfed by hardcover sales -- by a 50:1 ratio, in fact. Amazon are almost certainly cherry-picking if they can come up with books where Kindle sales outstrip hardcover. However, that's looking backwards -- it's fairly clear that ebooks are a rapidly growing sector and in another 2-5 years they'll definitively overtake hardcover sales by volume, if not by revenue. (Hardcovers net roughly $16 after discount, of which 10-15% goes to the author; Kindle store books net $7-10, of which Amazon takes a 30% cut before 5-10% of the remainder goes to the author.)
As mentioned in the article, Amazon already sells more Kindle books than they do hardcover books so I fail to see why they would need to cherry pick. And no need to wait 2-5 years, the future is here.
As mentioned in the article, Amazon already sells more Kindle books than they do hardcover books so I fail to see why they would need to cherry pick. And no need to wait 2-5 years, the future is here.
But Amazon has talked about how they got to that number and won't provide many specifics about Kindle sales in general. In addition, if Amazon is selling an equal number of books, then hardcover sales can still generate more revenue, which is what Stross points out: "they'll definitively overtake hardcover sales by volume, if not by revenue".
Yeah - I didn't get that part either. I'm guessing what the OP was saying was that for "new best selling releases that come out in Hard Cover and Kindle, but not Softcover, the Hard Cover Sells 50:1" - or something like that. I find it hard to believe that 50x more Hard Covers than Kindles are selling in 2010 - I saw three kindles and One iPad on the Plane back from BWI to Phoenix last weekend (Plus my iPad).
Speaking as an owner of a K1, K2, iPad, and in a week or two a K3, I'm putting the future out to Five years before eBooks become the dominant form of consuming light fiction in the United States, possibly even less. Ebook readers are going to get very cheap, very quickly. I'm expecting WiFi Kindle will be sub $99 within twelve months. And that will be a Hot, Hot Christmas Gift.
But, we may see it more quickly in the TextBook Market - those new inkling textbooks are _killer_ - I'd hate to be in the business of owning a University Textbook store right now. Their days are _very_ numbered. My call is minimum 50% business lost within 3 years, and close to 100% within 7 years. The kindle made me think that there would be a long time before there was a market for electronic textbooks (The Kindle is a horrible experience for textbooks) - The iPad+Inkling (and similar tablet/e-textbook frameworks to be released soon) make me think we're going to be blown away by how fast the conversion takes place. Fall 2010 - .5% of Students get their textbooks in eBook format. Spring 2011 - 1% Fall 2011 - 3%, Spring 2012 - 8%, Fall 2012 - 15%. Spring 2013 - 25%, Fall 2013 50% of all University textbooks in eBook format.
Textbooks w/Social Networking are here! (Literally - the Inkling App lets you share notes on the content with your classmates - and has a world class highlighting feature)
As mentioned in the article, Amazon already sells more Kindle books than they do hardcover books so I fail to see why they would need to cherry pick. And no need to wait 2-5 years, the future is here.