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fjtorres · 03-01-2013, 09:34 AM

A recent article at the Digital Reader Blog about a very WAG-ish estimate of the size of the iBookstore got me thinking:

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...llion-dollars/

One of the key points of discussion revolved around the ratio of downloads to purchases in ebookstores, which is (of course) reflective of buyer behavior. The number quoted, with some authority, is 100 (freebie) downloads per buy. (I'm assuming downloads includes both sample chapters and full free ebooks.)

For some readers, 100 to 1 is obviously very low and for others ridiculously high. But I'm curious to see if that sounds about right for a general average. Because that does have serious implications about the ebook business as a business.

For example, because book visibility becomes a series of checkpoints; catching eyeballs, catching mindshare, catching downloads, catching reads (which can be sample chapters, library checkouts, or full freebie reads), and catching actual sales. A process like that will (economically) favor series writers and/or writers with deep backlists readily available over newcomers or less prolific writers.

So my questions:
1- How reasonable does 100 to 1 downloads to buys sound? Should it be higher? Lower? Is it likely to go higher or lower?

2- What is your download to read ratio? For casual readers I'm pretty sure the download to read ratio will be pretty much the same as the buy ratio, but what about the avid experienced ebook readers? Hoarders aside, sooner or later the frenzy of free reads tends to moderate, right? And tracking down further content from known-good authors would drive down the download to buy ratio and download to read ratios.

I'm thinking that those ratios are going to have a lot to do with how the ebook business looks like moving forward and having an idea of how good downloads are as a proxy for sales and for actual reads is going to be critical to discussions about library ebooks, piracy, and pricing.

Any takers?

03-01-2013, 09:34 AM	#1
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	Freebie/buy, Download/read ratios A recent article at the Digital Reader Blog about a very WAG-ish estimate of the size of the iBookstore got me thinking: http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...llion-dollars/ One of the key points of discussion revolved around the ratio of downloads to purchases in ebookstores, which is (of course) reflective of buyer behavior. The number quoted, with some authority, is 100 (freebie) downloads per buy. (I'm assuming downloads includes both sample chapters and full free ebooks.) For some readers, 100 to 1 is obviously very low and for others ridiculously high. But I'm curious to see if that sounds about right for a general average. Because that does have serious implications about the ebook business as a business. For example, because book visibility becomes a series of checkpoints; catching eyeballs, catching mindshare, catching downloads, catching reads (which can be sample chapters, library checkouts, or full freebie reads), and catching actual sales. A process like that will (economically) favor series writers and/or writers with deep backlists readily available over newcomers or less prolific writers. So my questions: 1- How reasonable does 100 to 1 downloads to buys sound? Should it be higher? Lower? Is it likely to go higher or lower? 2- What is your download to read ratio? For casual readers I'm pretty sure the download to read ratio will be pretty much the same as the buy ratio, but what about the avid experienced ebook readers? Hoarders aside, sooner or later the frenzy of free reads tends to moderate, right? And tracking down further content from known-good authors would drive down the download to buy ratio and download to read ratios. I'm thinking that those ratios are going to have a lot to do with how the ebook business looks like moving forward and having an idea of how good downloads are as a proxy for sales and for actual reads is going to be critical to discussions about library ebooks, piracy, and pricing. Any takers? Last edited by fjtorres; 03-01-2013 at 09:37 AM.