Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy
This is saying that kindle books are outselling hardback books... at Amazon. Not eBooks are outselling hardbacks in general.
Do we know how many hardback books Amazon actually offers vs how many kindle books? Does Amazon have a competitive price for their hardbacks, or do people just buy them elsewhere?
|
Amazon is the world's largest catalog retailer. If it exists in hardcover and can be sold in the market areas in which Amazon is active, it's a good bet they have the hardcover on any mass market title. (Specialty publications aimed at niche markets may be another matter.)
And since retailing competes in part on price, you can assume Amazon's price will be competitive. You may be able to find a better price elsewhere, such as a "loss leader" promotion by a book store, but in general, Amazon will be comparable to the rest of the market.
What Amazon
really offers is convenience. It's a good bet they have the book, and you can place an order and have it shipped to you at
any time. You are not constrained by business hours of brick and mortar retailers. (And if you have a Kindle or Kindle app on a supported connected platform, you can get the actual ebook at any time. Instant gratification...)
We don't know what part of the total ebook market Amazon comprises and we can't know, though it's a fair bet they are a major player.
But "We've sold half again as many ebooks as hardcovers" is too fuzzy to be meaningful, since they haven't offered actual numbers, just percentages. Should Amazon ever say "We've sold half again as many ebooks as we have
all paper books, hardcover, trade paperback, and mass market paperbacks" it will be a different matter.
______
Dennis