Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
But they're not outselling paper books. Not even close. They are 10% of the market in the US, and far less in the rest of the world - close to 1% in the non-UK part of Europe.
They are outselling paper books on *Amazon* - which, while the largest bookseller in the US, still only has 15% or so of the market. And which has its own, heavily promoted e-reader. E-books are likewise close to outselling paper books at Bn.com (but are not even close to outselling paper books if you include B&N's brick and mortar stores).
Most people read 1-2 books per year. It makes no sense for these people to spend $100+ on an e-reader to read their books - the device would be obsolete before they read five books.
Most people still buy music on CD, despite a massive push into (and adoption of) mp3s.
Change doesn't happen overnight, and it only happens completely when the new format offers many improvements and almost no drawbacks over the format it has replaced. Vinyl records are *almost* dead, killed (almost) by CDs. Film is *almost* dead, due to digital.
CDs are not almost dead because they still offer some advantages over mp3s. For the majority of people who don't read 10 books per year or more, pbooks are still better.
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Good points. A lot of people take Amazon as the indicator for the entire market segment but they are not as huge as people think. Sure, 15% market share for a single company is huge but given they are pushing eBooks hard it's no surprise they are selling a little more of them than print books. From the consumer it make a lot of sense as well because instead of paying shipping, it just downloads to the device.
Personally, I think the future market for print books will be in high quality premium editions for collectors. We've already seen some of this in the small press publishing market.