Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I have read the article, but it doesn't (as far as I can see) answer the question I asked. Are people buying more backlist books because of eBooks (good), or fewer newly-published books (bad)?
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I'd expect the answer to be: both.
The article carefully avoids addressing the ratio of ebook to pbook sales but we already know that total spending on books is growing slowly so if there is any *big* shift in buying patterns towards ebook growth--which most publishers are seeing--it will of necessity require some canibalization.
Given that the total shift from p- to e- has so far been modest, the quoted numbers suggest merely that when looking for backlist titles consumers are moving to ebooks and that for new releases, p-books are still dominant.
Which is not too surprising as the bulk of total book sales still go to the casual readers (2-3 titles per year) rather than avid readers (2-3 titles per month) and the casual readers are more likely to be drawn in by new releases. The backlist perforce relies more on avid readers than the frontlist and avid readers are more likely to own ereaders than casual readers; add it up and it is most likely the avid readers, now faced with a deeper, more accessible backlist are shifting their budget at least partly towards the ebook backlist and away from new print releases.
Instead of being *forced* to feed their habit solely from recent releases, they have a deeper menu to choose from and are less likely to settle for a recent mediocrity or celebrity when quality older titles are available.
(This feeds into what we've been hearing from the publishers, that the bar for what consitutes a "bestseller" has been dropping and that that is why they have been reducing advances for new releases.)
The article makes a big deal of the loss of shelf-space but my read is that the lost shelf-space was redundant to start with. (If it wasn't, Borders would've been a viable outlet instead of imploding overnight.)
I would, however, be careful to read too much into these numbers: HMH is the weakest of the bigger publishers so their frontlist weakness may not be reflected at the other publishers throwing 7-figure deals at 50 Shades wannabees.
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat...re-deal_b55229