E-book sales jumped 150% in July

[Andrew Kaufman]

For those who doubt that e-books are catching on, here's the inescapable proof: Sales jumped 150% in July. Wonder what August will look like.

http://bit.ly/aNjZvX

[HarryT]

Andrew - could you replace that with a "proper" URL, please? People like to see where they are being sent to, rather than clicking on a disguised link that could take them to a malware site.

Thanks.

[lene1949]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Andrew - could you replace that with a "proper" URL, please? People like to see where they are being sent to, rather than clicking on a disguised link that could take them to a malware site.

Thanks.

I don't understand these URLs.. Are they easier to make than the 'normal' ones?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by lene1949

I don't understand these URLs.. Are they easier to make than the 'normal' ones?

No, they are just shorter. Their benefit is to replace a great long URL with a nice short one, but when it's a clickable link there's really no point. Their downside is that you can't see where you're being sent to, and that's a major problem.

[mSSM]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Andrew - could you replace that with a "proper" URL, please? People like to see where they are being sent to, rather than clicking on a disguised link that could take them to a malware site.

Thanks.

And that helps how? I can give you a link, generated by this forum's markup code, which looks like a "proper URL", but leads them to a malware site. Besides, the intent of services like bit.ly is to shorten URLs, not disguise them (although I have to agree, that especially with this forum's software there is no need for that; using the tags accessible via the toolbar above this input textbox one can create a proper link). And anyone who finds himself on a malware site and ends up getting the malware (i.e. downloading it) doesn't deserve anything different (best protection - use your brain).


Ad topic: super interesting development. Unfortunately, I don't see this coming in Germany too soon, with the Fixed Book Price Law making ebooks as expensive as normal books, and essentially impeding the development of the digital bookmarket. :-(

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mSSM

And that helps how? I can give you a link, generated by this forum's markup code, which looks like a "proper URL", but leads them to a malware site.

I don't know if it's true in all browsers, but in most, when you hover your mouse over a link, the URL it directs to is shown on the browser's status line.

Eg, if I say:

Go to Waterstones to buy your books!

Then even though the link says "Waterstones", your browser will still tell you that the link will actually take you to Amazon.

[igorsk]

Not that it solves the original issue (I agree that URL shorteners should not be used on the forums), but you can check where a bit.ly URL leads by adding '+' at the end.

[LCF]

Originally Posted by igorsk

Not that it solves the original issue (I agree that URL shorteners should not be used on the forums), but you can check where a bit.ly URL leads by adding '+' at the end.

And how should you know that as an average user? Without researching the topic I mean.

P.S. And where exactly are you supposed to add the "+" ?

P.S.2 OK, when you add the "+" you don't "see" the target link. You are actually going on the typed url (http://bit.ly/aNjZvX+ in our case), where you can see statistics like how many times the link has been used, some other things and the actual target url.

[blogbook]

Originally Posted by mSSM

Ad topic: super interesting development. Unfortunately, I don't see this coming in Germany too soon, with the Fixed Book Price Law making ebooks as expensive as normal books, and essentially impeding the development of the digital bookmarket. :-(

Not necessarily. The Fixed Book Price Law states one price for the same edition. Different hardcover editions (author's preface, different cover, reprint, ...) may have different prices. And the pbook another and theoretically the ebook another. Publishers are free to set the price for an ebook at 10% of the cheapest print edition. But I am quite sure I'd never live to see that.

[Kali Yuga]

These kinds of statistics, while most likely accurate, tend to be somewhat misleading.

For example, ebooks are still a very small slice of the pie. In 2009, ebook sales by 13 major publishers "jumped" by 175% overall.... but that actually means an increase from around $95 million in sales to $170 million, or from 1.2% of the market to 3.3%.

So, does a "175% increase" sound impressive when you're talking about $170m out of approximately $5 billion in sales...?

Plus, as ebooks continue to be adopted, you will see the "percentage of increase" go down even as the actual revenue numbers significantly increase. I.e. a 20% increase may not sound as big as a 175% jump, but if it's on $500 million in sales, that's an increase of $100 million.

So while I don't doubt the numbers per se, I do toss a little salt over my shoulder when I read stuff like this.

[Andrew Kaufman]

Sorry for the confusion over the link, Harry. I don't normally shorten them, however, for some reason, this one was about a paragraph long and I thought that might be more annoying to people than the mysterious short link. Can't win either way

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by Andrew Kaufman

Sorry for the confusion over the link, Harry. I don't normally shorten them, however, for some reason, this one was about a paragraph long and I thought that might be more annoying to people than the mysterious short link. Can't win either way

You don't have to paste the whole link as is. You can "hide" it under any word you choose, but the browser will still display the full URL in the status bar on mouse over.
1. select the word(s) you want to link
2. click the "hyperlink" button on top of the text box ()
3. paste the link and click OK
The selected word(s) will become linked.

[Pookeysgirl]

Originally Posted by igorsk

You don't have to paste the whole link as is. You can "hide" it under any word you choose, but the browser will still display the full URL in the status bar on mouse over.
1. select the word(s) you want to link
2. click the "hyperlink" button on top of the text box ()
3. paste the link and click OK
The selected word(s) will become linked.

Thank you for that info! I've been trying to figure out how everybody's been doing that since I joined MR!

[garygibsonsf]

I can see some correlation between the article and my own experience on this side of the pond though, yes, this is based to some degree on speculation. I just wrote a couple of blog entries about how, ever since Kindle editions of my books became available here in the UK, the ebooks at least appear to be outstripping the dead tree sales, sometimes by what may be quite a large margin (click on 'blog' in my signature down below there to see the relevant entries).

[Andrew Kaufman]

Thanks for the info. I appreciate it

Drew