Trade stats from IDPF
By Paul Biba
Here are the latest stats as published by the IDPF. While the curve is impressive, we have to remember that the total dollar volume is tiny compared to overall hardcover revenue.
The caveats are also important:
The data above represent United States revenues only
The data above represent only trade eBook sales via wholesale channels
Retail numbers may be as much as double the above figures due to industry wholesale discounts.
The data above represent only data submitted from approx. 12 to 15 trade publishers
The data does not include library, educational or professional electronic sales
The numbers reflect the wholesale revenues of publishers
The definition used for reporting electronic book sales is “All books delivered electronically over the Internet OR to hand-held reading devices”
April 23rd, 2009 at 10:41 am
More ebooks are sold in Japan than in America, thanks to the “cell phone novels” called ketai shosetsu. From zero sales in 2001, sales of these serialized novels rose to 10 billion yen — around 82 million American dollars — in 2006.
The Economist (magazine) says: “It may not be literature, but it sells. Mica Naitoh, a popular keitai author whose bestselling book had 160,000 downloads a day, says many of her readers never even buy old-fashioned books.”
Sales of ebooks are still a small compared with print books, but ebooks sales are growing at a rate much faster than print-book sales.
Does anyone know how much faster?
Michael Pastore
50 Benefits of Ebooks