Two-part report that aims to provide the information you need to catch up and keep up with this complex area of the information industry. First part:
Quote:
|
Today, we honestly don’t have a reliable, stable source for statistics on the book publishing industry in the U.S. or abroad. Bowker’s Books In Print used to be a standard source; however, today the industry defies even this standard, which bases its data on the fact that the publisher is responsible for assigning ISBNs for the industry. Nielsen BookScan has been in operation since 2001, but it is subscription-only at costs not affordable to public institutions, and it covers only about 75% of sales in the U.S. market.
|
Quote:
|
Kobo released its first Book Report in December 2014, which is intended to measure the value of the current worldwide market for ebooks. It estimates the current market at $14.5 million, with an expectation of continuing growth in the industry to $22 billion by 2017. Michael Tamblyn, Kobo’s president and chief content officer, notes, “The advances that we’re seeing year-over-year are incredible, with more publishers, users and new technology changing the face of the industry at an unprecedented pace.”
|
Quote:
|
Data on ebook adoption in Europe is less strong. “Last year, digital books made up 8 percent of the consumer book market in France, less than 4 percent in Germany and Italy, and 1 percent in Sweden and Norway,” The New York Times reports. “In Asia, Japan led e-book markets with 15 percent of the country’s total consumer book revenues; China and India, meanwhile, lagged far behind with 3 percent each.” According to publishing analyst Rüdiger Wischenbart, pricing has been the biggest challenge affecting the success of ebooks in Europe. “Germany and France have been reluctant to discount e-books for fear of hurting their print business. As a result, the average price for a digital version of a best-selling novel in Germany or France is over $20, compared with $9 in Britain.”
|
Quote:
|
In October 2014, Amazon released its Kindle Voyage to very little public reaction, although reviews of the pricey ($199) device were very positive. In the past year, Amazon put forth a wide variety of e-readers: the Kindle (seventh generation), Kindle Voyage, Kindle Voyage 3G, Fire HD 6, Fire HD 7 (second generation), and Fire HDX 8.9 (second generation). Is this overkill or targeted marketing? Perhaps a larger question is whether the e-reader is losing its luster in the marketplace.
|
(
Original Article from NewsBreaks)