# ebooks now outselling paperbacks!



## Fried Egg

Amazon's ebook sales eclipse paperbacks for the first time


> "Amazon.com is now selling more Kindle books than paperback books. Since the beginning of the year, for every 100 paperback books Amazon has sold, the company has sold 115 Kindle books. Additionally, during this same time period the company has sold three times as many Kindle books as hardcover books.
> 
> "This is across Amazon.com's entire US book business and includes sales of books where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the numbers even higher."


This is somewhat worrying for me I must admit. I have never read a e-book on an reader, and from what I can tell they do look pretty good. However there's something about having a book in your hand that I love which a book reader could never replace. Not to mention the pleasure of wandering around a bookshop. 

I would hate it if it ever became the case that only the likely best-sellers were released with hard copies. The other day for the first time I was thwarted from a potential book purchase when I was confronted with the fact that the book was only available in e-book format.

Which brings me to a curious point. The above quote makes no mention of the fact that more and more books are now available only in e-book format. Are they trying to big-up the figures? Do they want most people to buy their books in electronic format?


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## Ursa major

Any company will want to reduce its cost. I expect warehousing is one of Amazon's and the holding of stock another**. Shipping electronic copies must make sense for Amazon.


Speaking as someone who has little knowledge of ebooks and ereaders and the contract (implied or explicit) between, say, Amazon and the human reader, I do have a couple of questions:
Who audits the sales? With real books, the publisher has to deliver x number of books to the retailer (including Amazon). With an electronic book, this doesn't have to happen. Is each copy given a unique identifier? (I'm not accusing any seller of ebooks of fraud, but if I were a publisher, I'd want to know exactly what my sales through a retailer were.
What happens to Amazon when all books are e-books? Its rôle as a warehouser of books will have gone, replaced, one assumes, by direct sales from the publisher or author (or agent?). Does Amazon become a repository of reviews. A reseller of ebooks? A supplier of ereaders?
** - Depending on its financial arrangement with each publisher.


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## chopper

your last point is the telling one, ursa (though i say this as someone with an interest in selling ebooks...) - amazon are out to promote their nifty kindle device, and today's story obviously does that. somehow i don't think paper books will disappear - anything that is ebook only right now is most likely (*coff*) a self-published effort - as even the rabid kindle fan i know still gleefully runs off to waterstones to get his fix of "proper-book" once every other week.


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## Teresa Edgerton

I think Amazon is trying to promote its Kindle device right now, and I suspect that they are manipulating the figures and playing with words a little bit.

They say Kindle is outselling paperback books.  If you look at the listings on Amazon, when they say "paperback," they mean trade paperback. When they mean mass market paperback, they say "mass market paperback."  So are they counting both of those together, or just the trade paperbacks, which are  more expensive and and don't put up nearly the same numbers as the mass market books.  

Mass market books are named that for a reason.  They don't just sell them online and in bookstores.  They sell them in a lot of places where you will find few, if any, of the trade paperbacks or hardcover.  If Amazon is leaving those out of the equation, then what they are saying is not the same thing  that most people reading that statement will think they are saying.

It's not surprising that the Kindle books also outsell hardcover.  A lot of hardcover books are hideously expensive.


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## Radix

Books (like music) I need to have up on the shelf (by author/artist)
in chronological order-


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## Vertigo

I'm not too surprised by this and even if Amazon have manipulated the figures (or the meaning behind the figures) I believe that manipulation will become academic in a short while as the growth of ebooks continues. It really is not so different to the progression of music from vinyl to CD to downloaded files. There were many who loved vinyl and thought CD had a cold, clinical sound but that didn't stop them taking over. Now there are many who complain (quite correctly) that downloaded music is not as high quality as uncompressed music on a CD. But the convenience of downloaded MP3's seems to be taking over (don't know the figures bout I would expect downloaded music to overtake CD sales before long if they haven't already). Most people most of the time are not listening to their music closely enough to appreciate any loss of quality. 

My point is that the same *will* happen with books whether the readers of today like it or not. Many of you undoubtedly like hard copy books - the feel and even the smell of the paper - but in the end, in this day and age, convenience *always* wins out over aesthetics and I am completely convinced that ebooks will eventually take over from hard copies. Unlike compressed music there is no loss of quality of the content only the aesthetic appeal of the medium. For the time being the only drawback is the poor quality of illustrations, photos, maps and that sort of thing and that will only improve with the technology. I think I read recently that the first full colour screens with the same sort of energy conservation as the current eInk screens are on their way.

I'm afraid whether you like it or not ebooks will be the future of reading. To deny this is to put yourself in the same camp as people that said "talkie movies" would never take off or TV would never take over from radio, or mobile phones are just a fad.



> Who audits the sales? With real books, the publisher has to deliver x number of books to the retailer (including Amazon). With an electronic book, this doesn't have to happen. Is each copy given a unique identifier? (I'm not accusing any seller of ebooks of fraud, but if I were a publisher, I'd want to know exactly what my sales through a retailer were.


I don't know the details on this one but I suspect it is already covered. You would be surprised how many times you get "Out of Stock" when trying ot buy an eBook (particularly on the Book Depository). This implies that the distributor buys a fixed number of licences (or some such) for a particular book and then can no longer sell that book until they buy in more licences.

As to your second question I think Amazon will still continue. Whilst publishers may (and do) sell their own eBooks direct (eg. Baen and Phoenix Picks and I'm sure many others) Think what a pain it would be to have to go to different on line stores for each different publisher when you want to buy books. Again not disimilar to music; there is nothing stopping the record labels from selling their music downloads direct but people will still go to places like iTunes where they can get everything in one place.


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## Teresa Edgerton

And what happens to our books when the reader we have becomes obsolete and is no longer supported?  Will we have a collection of books that we can't reread ... unless we re-buy them in the new format?

What is convenient about that?


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## Captain Campion

Teresa Edgerton said:


> And what happens to our books when the reader we have becomes obsolete and is no longer supported? Will we have a collection of books that we can't reread ... unless we re-buy them in the new format?
> 
> What is convenient about that?


 
Good point but, I suppose, the evolution of VHS to DVD to Blu-Ray provides some guidance in how things could develop, although I believe electronic files will be a lot easier to make compatible with new hardware as those changes come along.


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## Vertigo

> And what happens to our books when the reader we have becomes obsolete and is no longer supported? Will we have a collection of books that we can't reread ... unless we re-buy them in the new format?


 
Essentially no you would simply upload them to your new eReader. That said there are currently some issue around that made worse by Amazon's adoption of their own format - Kindle downloads can only be played on Kindles. All other manufacturers have pretty much settled on the standard ePub format; any book in this format can be read on any machine (except Kindles!). Apple tried the same sort of thing with their own music format that could only be played on iPods. This ultimately failed and now music downloads are pretty much all one format; MP3. The same will happen with eBooks I am certain. As that standard is developed eReaders will inevitably be backwards compatible so your old formats will still be perfectly readable. Just as I can still read a Micrsoft Word document from the earliest days of Windows.

The real pain at the moment is DRM "security". Again this was tried by the music industry and has ultimately been abandoned. The same will happen in the book industry I'm sure; a number of publishers are already providing their books DRM free and have reported no loss of sales eg. Baen and Phoenix Picks (an imprint of Arc Manor). OK maybe not the biggest publishers in the world but an indication of the way forward. This is no surprise because ultimately, DRM or no eBooks, can be pirated very easily; any software security system will always be circumvented somehow by those determined to do so. I currently strip the DRM from each book I buy and convert any Kindle (AZW) format books to ePub (if I had a Kindle I would do it in the opposite direction). This is a bit of a pain, yes, but takes considerably less time than going to a book shop to buy my book and really doesn't take much more time than unwrapping a book that I have received by post. Technically what I'm doing is not legal but I do buy all the books that I do it to and consider it to be asserting my rights as the purchaser to choose how I will read them. 

Even hard copy does not protect the publishers from this piracy; you wouldn't believe how many books have been scanned - yes every single page scanned and OCR'r into digital text - and then uploaded for people to download (read steal) for free. Name almost any book written in the last 50 years or so and I could probably find a "free" download of a scanned copy of it for you. I'm not saying this is right, proper or moral but it happens. The bottom line is that things like DRM cause hassle for the buyers and the publishers and really achieves very little. I expect it to be dropped eventually. The reality is that people determined to pirate will always find a way of doing it, honest people will always be prepared to pay a reasonable price for what they buy.

I'm not saying the transition will be painless, particularly for the publishers maybe, but in the end I think it is an inevitable future. 

Obsolescence of readers is inevitable but obsolescence of your actual book files should never be an issue. Incidentally you can always re-download your ebooks so you loose nothing even if your eReader is lost or stolen. I can't say all, but certainly all the major sellers like Amazon, Waterstones, WH Smiths etc. keep a record of the books you have bought and you can re-download them to your registered device at any time (and I have done so just to check it works!). That said I keep all mine backed up anyway - it's automatic on my system.


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## J Riff

I already have various freeware converters- PDF to .Lit, Sony to this, Kindle to that.... now all I need is a reader. I estimate two yrs. before they start showing up in thrift stores, they are already sitting in pawn shops everywhere.


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## Null_Zone

Looking at the prices of Kindle books this is easy enough to why assuming the number are accurate.

I've been reading alot of cheap horror and Sci-fi, most of it pretty bad but for £1 a copy it's hard to complain. I've paid £8.99 for worse on occasion so a 1:9 chance is pretty good of stumbling on something worthwhile. So whilst I'm still buying the same number of history and more standard fiction it's hard to resist cheap books that will probably be terrible but you never know.


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## Teresa Edgerton

Vertigo said:
			
		

> As that standard is developed eReaders will inevitably be backwards compatible so your old formats will still be perfectly readable. Just as I can still read a Micrsoft Word document from the earliest days of Windows.



I'm on a Mac, and there are a lot of my old files that I can't read.  They aren't Word files, though.  I've just started using Word for some things, and I dislike it excessively, but you may have just pointed out a feature I could learn to love as time passes and I have older Word files that I want to open.

But ... the reason I use Word now is because I do freelance editing and I have to be able to work with other people's files, which are almost inevitably Word files.  Of course some of us have newer versions of Word than others, and when I open some of those files a window pops up saying that I might lose some information opening that file.  So far, that hasn't happened, but I assume that there are situations where that _does_ happen between older and newer versions of Word — or else why the window and the warning?

When was the last time you opened one of those old, old documents?


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## Parson

Teresa Edgerton said:


> I'm on a Mac, and there are a lot of my old files that I can't read.  They aren't Word files, though.  I've just started using Word for some things, and I dislike it excessively, but you may have just pointed out a feature I could learn to love as time passes and I have older Word files that I want to open.
> 
> But ... the reason I use Word now is because I do freelance editing and I have to be able to work with other people's files, which are almost inevitably Word files.  Of course some of us have newer versions of Word than others, and when I open some of those files a window pops up saying that I might lose some information opening that file.  So far, that hasn't happened, but I assume that there are situations where that _does_ happen between older and newer versions of Word — or else why the window and the warning?
> 
> When was the last time you opened one of those old, old documents?



I'm amazed about the Mac. I would have thought with all of Apple's proprietary software that this would never happen.

I too deal with a lot of attachments and have installed Word 2007 out of self defense, I suppose soon I'll have to update again. But what I can't understand is why we don't all send pdf attachments? Any Word Processor worth its salt can make one. In your case TE, I suppose they want you to insert into the text and that would make Adobe Pagemaker (A real high end program!) necessary. Mine are almost always the "How does this sound?" "Is this what we meant?" variety.


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## Vertigo

Teresa, I also am a little surprised by what you say about the Mac. I would have expected them to be better than that.

I have only tried documents back to the earliest Windows versions and I would anticipate more problems (and likely complete failure) with pre windows formats like Wordstar, Wordperfect etc.

However there is a huge difference with the ePub format (unlike Amazon's proprietary AZW for Kindles) and that is that it is an open international standard rather than a proprietary format:



> EPUB became an official standard of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) in September 2007, superseding the older Open eBook standard.


 
Unfortunately with proprietary formats there is much less motivation to rigorously support earlier versions. However with something like eBooks, for exactly the reasons you originally mentioned, it would be frankliy criminal to bring out a new standard that did not support the old. And ePub is also based on XHTML another international open standard.


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## nj1

I don't know if i'm off the mark here but I would say that the high sales of e-book are likely due to the people who bought kindle are likely stock-piling books on they're devices. I have an old e-reader somewhere and when  new i rushed off to download books just to be able to show everyone how many books i had and was able to add to the device. ofcourse it took me agaes to read the ones i bought and eventually went back to paper. now i've reverted back to PB my buying has slowed down to 1-2 books per month. I'm not saying everyones like me but once the novelty of downloading books wears off the sales may likely drop to a more realistic rate.


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## Cayal

Gonna be harder to spy what others are reading and judge them thusly.


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## Parson

Vertigo said:


> Teresa, I also am a little surprised by what you say about the Mac. I would have expected them to be better than that.
> 
> I have only tried documents back to the earliest Windows versions and I would anticipate more problems (and likely complete failure) with pre windows formats like Wordstar, Wordperfect etc.
> 
> However there is a huge difference with the ePub format (unlike Amazon's proprietary AZW for Kindles) and that is that it is an open international standard rather than a proprietary format:
> 
> 
> 
> Unfortunately with proprietary formats there is much less motivation to rigorously support earlier versions. However with something like eBooks, for exactly the reasons you originally mentioned, it would be frankliy criminal to bring out a new standard that did not support the old. And ePub is also based on XHTML another international open standard.



I have been running a Word Perfect program since 1989 --- I know that's longer than some of our posters have been alive --- But for this thread it is significant. I can access all of my old WP files, I think all the way back to DOS 3.3 days. But if memory serves me right I did update them once so that may not be as significant as I think. Also WP can (or perhaps I should say will) deal with all the Word files up to the date of the program you are presently using. I can always save a Word file, but in Word I can't save a WP file ---- frustrating for sure. 

Using this as a basis, I would guess that if Kindle winds up totally winning the e-reader war then we will get an Apple situation. But if "all the others" hold their own it will be more like VHS.


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## Fried Egg

Vertigo said:


> I'm afraid whether you like it or not ebooks will be the future of reading. To deny this is to put yourself in the same camp as people that said "talkie movies" would never take off.


You make a powerful case but  I don't think the demise of paper books is quite as innevitable as that. Technology is also working in favour of paper books because printing is becoming easier and cheaper. Coupled with the digitisation of book content, paper books can continue to be sold on a "print on demand" basis indefinitely. They may end up being more expensive than ebooks but I would have thought they would continue to be available to those who choose to buy them. If the costs of printing individual books continues to fall, it shouldn't matter how small a minority are people like me who are willing to support them.

Long live the paperback book!


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## Stephen Palmer

Long live, indeed, but this thread worries me...


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## Null_Zone

Cayal said:


> Gonna be harder to spy what others are reading and judge them thusly.


 
As shown by the increase in Mills & Boon sales.


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## Vertigo

Fried Egg said:


> You make a powerful case but I don't think the demise of paper books is quite as innevitable as that. Technology is also working in favour of paper books because printing is becoming easier and cheaper. Coupled with the digitisation of book content, paper books can continue to be sold on a "print on demand" basis indefinitely. They may end up being more expensive than ebooks but I would have thought they would continue to be available to those who choose to buy them. If the costs of printing individual books continues to fall, it shouldn't matter how small a minority are people like me who are willing to support them.
> 
> Long live the paperback book!


 
I think you are probably right there FE - and I suspect there will continue to be a market for glossy coffee table books, also for food recipe books (you probably don't want to put your grease covered fingers all over your nice shiny eReader) and I'm sure there are other niches that will continue to publish on paper. As far as straight print only books go it will, I'm sure, be market driven; so long as people are buying them they will continue to be printed. And I would guess that is likely to remain the case for at least another generation, so I'm certainly not saying printed books will disappear in the next 5 or even 10 years.

Just stop and try to imagine the situation 100 years from now with massively more sophisticated technology than anything we have today; I simply can't imagine books still being printed on paper then, except possibly for very specific niche markets.


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## Fried Egg

Vertigo said:


> Just stop and try to imagine the situation 100 years from now with massively more sophisticated technology than anything we have today; I simply can't imagine books still being printed on paper then, except possibly for very specific niche markets.


Thankfully, I'll be long dead!


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## Taidaishar

I bought an eReader (Kindle 3) a few days ago.  They're so cheap now!  $139 is pretty good for an eReader of this quality.

ANYWAY, there's no problem with formats.  You can download 'calibre'.  It's freeware software that's sort of like iTunes for your Kindle (or whatever eReader).  It converts any ebook format to any other formats.  I've been using it to convert PDF to MOBI for use on my Kindle (I don't really like Kindle's PDF support... or at least, I haven't had the right settings).

As for future eReaders that may not support old formats, there are ways to strip DRM and convert to formats that will be supported.


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## Vertigo

Taidaishar said:


> I bought an eReader (Kindle 3) a few days ago. They're so cheap now! $139 is pretty good for an eReader of this quality.
> 
> ANYWAY, there's no problem with formats. You can download 'calibre'. It's freeware software that's sort of like iTunes for your Kindle (or whatever eReader). It converts any ebook format to any other formats. I've been using it to convert PDF to MOBI for use on my Kindle (I don't really like Kindle's PDF support... or at least, I haven't had the right settings).
> 
> As for future eReaders that may not support old formats, there are ways to strip DRM and convert to formats that will be supported.


 
Unfortunately that's fine if your original is not DRM'd; if it is then Calibre won't convert it. This is why I strip the DRM from all eBooks that I buy so that I can convert to my required format. However whilst not inherently difficult to do, it is somewhat intimidating for non techie computer users and of course is technically illegal. This should not be required - when I purchase a book, film, cd etc. I should not be restricted as to what devices I can read, watch, listen on, which is essentially the whole argument against DRM.


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## Daisy-Boo

Vertigo said:


> Unfortunately that's fine if your original is not DRM'd; if it is then Calibre won't convert it. This is why I strip the DRM from all eBooks that I buy so that I can convert to my required format. However whilst not inherently difficult to do, it is somewhat intimidating for non techie computer users and of course is technically illegal. This should not be required - when I purchase a book, film, cd etc. I should not be restricted as to what devices I can read, watch, listen on, which is essentially the whole argument against DRM.


 
Your last sentence pretty much sums up why I'm reluctant to buy an e-reader, specifically the Kindle. When I buy a paper book I can read it whenever and wherever I want. More importantly, I can lend it to someone and that person can take as long as they need to read it. I believe that Amazon allows a two-week lending period but that is simply inadequate IMO. Why does Amazon get to decide how long my friend has to read the book that _I_ paid for?

I'm heartened by the news that I can strip the DRM and convert an ebook to another format. It shouldn't need to be done but there you go.

I'm not anti-ebook and my greedy reader's heart longs for an e-reader (thousands of books in my handbag!) but I'll buy it when I have some spare cash lying around that is not needed elsewhere. Until then, it's still beautiful paper books for me.


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## Arkose

I received an original nook last Christmas. I have read 5 books and working on my sixth, I have read maybe 3 books all of last year if that.  I don't know about others, but I will probably break 15 books this year, which I would have never bought otherwise.  I don't know if not printing is a bad idea or not but in general I believe the more people read the better.  

Especially since local libraries are letting you check out ebooks and have them on your ereader, its hard to go back to print. Heck I have a text book on my ereader and it has worked quite well for me.


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## Parson

Arkose,

Those days may be limited. Harper Collins (if memory serves) has just limited the amount that libraries can loan ebooks (some? classics?) to 24 times before they must repurchase the book. A city (100,000 people) nearby has decided that they will boycott all of Harper Collins offerings print and otherwise because of this decision. The publisher is afraid of "hurting the sales of their other ebooks, and depriving the authors of royalties."


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## soulsinging

Vertigo said:


> It really is not so different to the progression of music from vinyl to CD to downloaded files. There were many who loved vinyl and thought CD had a cold, clinical sound but that didn't stop them taking over. Now there are many who complain (quite correctly) that downloaded music is not as high quality as uncompressed music on a CD. But the convenience of downloaded MP3's seems to be taking over (don't know the figures bout I would expect downloaded music to overtake CD sales before long if they haven't already). Most people most of the time are not listening to their music closely enough to appreciate any loss of quality.



It's worth noting that music downloading hasn't really stopped vinyl sales and might, in fact, be helping them. CD's pleased no one... they weren't that much more convenient for the casual listener and lacked the sound quality others wanted. Music downloading seems to have done more damage to CD's by basically taking all of the casual market, but vinyl is increasing in popularity.

I imagine this is what will happen going forward. Most books will switch to digital primarily, but you may see a resurging interest in quality book editions... hardcover, nice trade copies, etc... for the collector types.

That said, there are also important differences in use to remember. Ipods took off because portable music supported it... we jog while we listen, or walk to work, ride the subway, etc. mp3 players made this all much easier to do than a cd player that skips or a heavy cassette walkman. Books aren't quite the same, not many people NEED the portability of a book becos few people read while they work out, etc.


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## Lucky_Lola

> I imagine this is what will happen going forward. Most books will switch to digital primarily, but you may see a resurging interest in quality book editions... hardcover, nice trade copies, etc... for the collector types.



I hope this is the case. A lot of my friends call me old fashioned because I refuse to buy an e-reader. While I'll happily admit that having my entire library in one slim device would make packing for holidays, shifting house and reading on the train a heck of a lot easier, there is just no comparison to the feel of a real volume in my hands. I like looking at my bookshelves and seeing what I've managed to amass (although I do miss my boxes and boxes of books that I had to leave in New Zealand when I moved to Australia). 

Since I was a little girl I've wanted an old-fashioned library, with the oak desk and the green leather chaise. It's the romanticism of paper books that appeals to me. I've been told that makes me something of a snob 

I write because it's a part of who I am. When I had a short story published in an anthology it wasn't 'real' to me until I held the volume in my hands and saw my words on the pages. I have a guilty little fantasy sometimes when I go into a bookstore, imagining seeing my WIP on the shelves. Somehow the electronic medium just isn't as 'real' to me. But then, I'm a snob


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## Duncan

I am an ebook convert.  I buy my books from B&N US rather than Amazon because I won't support Amazon's format.  B&N is also much easier to strip DRM and I don't need to strip DRM to back up my content.  I keep my content and have the ability to strip DRM at any time but currently don't bother to.

I buy a lot of books, between 10-20 per month if my last year's records are to be believed.  Now I only started using an Ereader last March so there is some replacement purchasing in there.  But with a library of 1500 paper books that trend is likely to continue.

I now only buy paper if the books are collectibles and unavailable in ebook format.  I may buy paper and ebook formats in the case of an author signing event.  I recently bought the hardcover of *The Wise Man's Fear* at a book store signing.  I already had purchased the ebook version.

All in all I suspect ebooks are hear and will become the new normal.  Who buys music CD's nowadays?  Certainly not I.  The ereader platforms are quite good and with my NOOKColor I get to see cover art properly too


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## jonathanpoku

This is great for all of us self published authors as publishing and distributing e-books is much easier than self publishing paperbacks.


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## Stephen Palmer

You still have to get the readers though - that's the hard bit, and the internet makes it harder. A whole ocean of self published's...


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## MartinJH

Much as I love books I simply do not have the space for all the ones that I have, let alone the ones I would like to have. I still buy “real” books, mostly nice big “special” books, while my ebook reader fills the same niche in my collection as all those second hand paperbacks that I’ve always loved buying, and in effect is slowly replacing them. What with that and all the out of copyright older books that are available for free, it seems ironic that I’m using this most modern of inventions mostly to read a lot of very old books!

A slight digression, but here’s a question I’ve wondered about particularly since ebook piracy became a hot topic. Clearly the author should benefit from the circulation of their work. I might be missing something about how the market works, but just how does an author benefit when someone buys their book from a good old second hand bookshop? In this respect how does this venerable practice differ from obtaining a copy of an ebook someone else originally bought?

Martin


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## Vertigo

The problem with selling an ebook second hand is there is no way to transfer ownership. Though they are working on this with libraries lending ebooks. To sell your ebook, you would first have to strip the DRM on it otherwise the buyer wouldn't be able to read it and then there is no way to stop you keeping your own copy. So in the end you have sold a copy not the original and there are now two books out there instead of the original one and the author has received nothing for that extra copy.


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## ktabic

MartinJH said:


> I might be missing something about how the market works, but just how does an author benefit when someone buys their book from a good old second hand bookshop? In this respect how does this venerable practice differ from obtaining a copy of an ebook someone else originally bought?



When a second-hand copy of a book is sold, the author doesn't get an compensation, But someone brought the book originally, and the author got compensated for that. And there is only a limited number of physical copies of the book out there and the author got compensated for each copy.

With ebooks, there is no limit to the number of copies. I could sell, as second-hand, any of the ebooks I have brought*, but since that would not require that I lose my copy, I could do it again. There is no limit on the upper number of copies I could sell, or give-away.

* I laugh at the concept of DRM. It is either inherently insecure, or inherently intrusive and probably insecure at the same time, and I know exactly how to strip the drm from everything I have brought.


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## old wallie

I am an e-book convert, as a way of trying new authors, carrying books on trips, and reading where turning pages would bother others.  I also love paper books and buy them.  I am disturbed about the pricing of some e-books.  If you can buy a paper book for $8.00 and an e-book sells for $7.00, why should I buy the e-book?  An e-book has all the bother of being restricted on lending it, having to worry about keeping your device charged, and having a breakable device to carry.(I have broken 2 Kindles)   If you damage a paper book, it just requires a little tape.
On the other hand I applaud the idea of Text Books as e-books, as they should be cheaper, and can be revised without buying a whole new book.  This should also give the schools more choice in publishers.  
I can see a place for both types of publishing side by side, giving new authors a better chance of getting published, and keeping the sensation of having a real book in your hands.


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## chongjasmine

I am not surprized that ebooks outsell paper books. This is the result of people being more tech savy and ebooks being cheaper and less space consuming.


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## paeng

Just take note of the fine print, i.e., ownership of what one buys, what happens if the service is no longer available, and so on.


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## Swank

I would bet ebook dollars aren't greater. Just units sold.


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## Parson

The thread is dated print books sell more and are more valuable. But it must be remembered that these are total books sales. I would suspect that if we are only talking about novels that ebooks out sell print books. (the quoted source below doesn't say precisely but the hints are there. For one thing in genre fiction ebooks out pace print books about 2-1) In the last 5 years I've only bought maybe 5 print novels, and I've read somewhere about 800-1000 novels in that time.


Print books out-sell eBooks 4-to1
*191 million* e-books were sold in the United States in 2020
Printed book sales amounted to *750.89 million* units in 2020
Print book sales have increased *13.2%* between 2020 and 2021, and *21%* between 2019 and 2021
eBook sales grew by *22%* in 2020
eBook sales have decreased *8%* in 2021 but are still *8%* higher than they were in 2019
In 2020, *19%* of adult readers owned an e-reader, a decrease from *32%* of adult readers who owned e-readers in 2014
*2020 book sales info*


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