More Google searches done for ‘ebooks’ than for ‘novels’: Triumph of medium over message?
I’ve repeatedly warned big publishers that they can’t roll back the future—that they’ve got to embrace e-books, help rid the industry of eBabel and back off from a dangerous fixation on traditional DRM.
And now here’s some information from Google Trends that even I, an e-book booster, would consider worrisome. By a ratio of 1.14 to 1, more people are searching on Google for "ebooks" (blue line) than for the word "novels" (red). Is this a triumph of the medium over the message? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
But what I can say for certain is that Google’s "ebook"-to-"novel" ratio is higher in the developing world, the very place where U.S. and European publishers might want to be cultivating new markets and partnerships with local people and companies. Click on the ratio link and you’ll see what I mean.
Powerful argument for TeleRead
Here at home in the States and in many others countries, one of the best ways to grow the e-book market would be to establish a well-stocked national digital library system—blended in well with local schools and libraries and much more book-friendly than the current status quo.
Will book publishers just go on fighting the usual copyright wars with librarians and high tech companies? Or will they instead reach out to enlist them in the popularization of books, especially novels and other narrative works?
More vidgame focus in "developed" nations like the U.S.
Meanwhile I was curious about the phrase "video games" vs. "novels." Sure enough, "video" games walloped "novels" 2.08 to one, though I’m surprised the ratio isn’t even higher. Significantly "novels" outranked "video games" in the developing world. Could this be one reason for big publishing conglomerates to pull out all stops to develop e-book markets in countries such as India before it’s too late?
And what does this say about the effects of games vs. books on people’s thinking processes? And how does this fit in with the Obama administration’s stimulus package? As I’ve asked before, does the U.S. really want to expand its broadband infrastructure without worrying about the kinds of content Americans will consume. Will books lose out to games and other beneficiaries of broadband? I see roles for both games and books. But a little balance, please.
Detail: I used "ebooks" rather than "e-books," bowing to popular usage even though I prefer the hyphenation.
About the the lower line in the first graph shown: Isn’t it interesting how the mainstream news media show such little interest in "ebooks" compared to "novels"—the exact opposite of the trend on the Net? Talk about being out of touch with readers!
February 19th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
You’re comparing apples and oranges here. Or rather, you’re assuming that you can measure my desire for apples or oranges by my searches for generic terms like “food.”
Books have much more accessible metadata by which to search than just the genre (”novels”). To compare all searches for novels with all searches for ebooks you’d have to somehow identify and include all author and title searches, as well as all searches for particular models of ebooks like “Kindle.”
February 19th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
I suspect many will be searching for ebooks in the hope they can download them or find them to purchase online. With novels, they’re more likely to be searching for authors or specific titles instead.
Whatever the reason, the important point is that people are seeking ebooks, and where there’s a demand there should also be a supply.
February 19th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
I agree. This is a pretty useless statistic. I can’t imaging why anyone would search for “novels”. It won’t produce any meaningful results. On the other hand there could be many reason to search for ebooks. This is an example of having too much data and trying to force it into a mold to make a point.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Thanks, Prentice, Simon and Paul. Yes, “novels” are merely a subset of “books,” and there’s also the fact you can download an e-book but not a paper title.
Still, “ebooks” get much less exposure in school and in the media; and novels make up perhaps half of books. That’s why it’s interesting that the phrase “ebooks” actually beats out “novels.”
Moreover, e-books are just a speck of the total number of books sold. Makes you wonder how much of the downloading involves public domain books or, gasp, warez.
Of course, in the real world, pub domain books consume just a fraction of readers’ total time.
In any event it’s fascinating how the lay of the “land” in cyberspace differs so much from meat space.
Thanks for helping me explore those differences!
David
February 20th, 2009 at 1:04 am
Those excessive google searches for “ebooks” could be me.
February 24th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
“Of course, in the real world, pub domain books consume just a fraction of readers’ total time.”
Actually I suspect the mostly widely read book in the Western world is in the public domain (though presumably if the content industries get their way, even *that* will soon be subject to copyright).