FT: E-books overtake US Paperbacks

[kjk]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d2f3b444-6...44feab49a.html

Trouble at bricks-and-mortar book retailers has combined with booming sales of e-readers and tablet computers to make e-books the biggest-selling category of the US publishing industry for the first time, according to data released on Thursday.

Sales of e-books in February tripled over the previous year to $90.3m, the Association of American Publishers reported, exceeding adult paperback sales of $81.2m.

A 169 per cent surge in e-book revenues since the start of the year contrasted with a 24.8 per cent decline in print book sales to $442m over the two-month period. February figures showed steeper declines in some print categories, with adult hardcover sales falling 43 per cent to $46.2m and mass-market paperbacks down 41.5 per cent at $29.3m.

Sorry, site has a reg. wall.

[Kali Yuga]

Here's the original source for the article: http://www.publishers.org/press/30/

The FT article is a little bit misleading. The categories are broken into "Adult Hardcover, Adult Paperback, Adult Mass Market, Children’s/Young Adult Hardcover, Children’s/Young Adult Paperback." Ebooks are beating these individual categories, to wit:

February 2011:
All Ebooks = $90m
Adult print = $156m
Children's print = $58m
Religious = $48m
Education = $406m
Professional = $46m

So, ebooks clocked in at a little over 11% of sales in February, and likely cuts across all of the above divisions to a certain extent.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Here's the original source for the article: http://www.publishers.org/press/30/

The FT article is a little bit misleading. The categories are broken into "Adult Hardcover, Adult Paperback, Adult Mass Market, Children’s/Young Adult Hardcover, Children’s/Young Adult Paperback." Ebooks are beating these individual categories, to wit:

February 2011:
All Ebooks = $90m
Adult print = $156m
Children's print = $58m
Religious = $48m
Education = $406m
Professional = $46m

So, ebooks clocked in at a little over 11% of sales in February, and likely cuts across all of the above divisions to a certain extent.

Wow, education was a huge chunk!

[Penforhire]

That's because academic books are so freakin' expensive. I'm floored that so many graduate-level e-books are over $100 each. It sort of made sense with print books and how few books in total were printed. But then you could sell your paper school books after the class was over (and buy used books to start with).

[Barty]

Originally Posted by kjk

Wow, education was a huge chunk!

Nice little racket they have going there. I shudder thinking about those college books I had to buy, where $50 was "cheap".

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Barty

Nice little racket they have going there. I shudder thinking about those college books I had to buy, where $50 was "cheap".

lol, me too...but now my son is about to go to college, so I'm sure the shuddering will continue.

[SensualPoet]

I would not want to poo-poo the milestone exactly as reported by FT: ebooks outsold, in revenue, adult paperbacks (which is more than half the adult market which consists of hardcover, paperback (aka trade) and mass). Put another way, ebooks outsold adult hardcover AND mass, or outsold adult trade ... you pick your poison. Given the adult fiction market is the one best suited to current ereaders, it's an impressive change in consumer behaviour since Kindle moved International in Oct 2009 and the Nook was release a month later.

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

That's because academic books are so freakin' expensive. I'm floored that so many graduate-level e-books are over $100 each. It sort of made sense with print books and how few books in total were printed. But then you could sell your paper school books after the class was over (and buy used books to start with).

I was shocked at the cost of the texts in ebook form. I don't see how it's necessary to charge THAT much for them. I'd rather just stick to the hard copy in that event.

[grumpy3b]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

That's because academic books are so freakin' expensive. I'm floored that so many graduate-level e-books are over $100 each. It sort of made sense with print books and how few books in total were printed. But then you could sell your paper school books after the class was over (and buy used books to start with).

I think most people here fully understand the delima you face with book prices, especially grad level books. I know I remember mine. Love my Abstract Algebra text that was about 120 pages and cost $180 back in 1990. Then one of my smart ass prof's, he was one of my fav prof's though, chimed in with the old saw "...beware the thin book." No kidding because in the thin book it's about what they leave out, especially proofs and examples where they can take gianormous leaps leaving the trivial substance of the concept for as an exercise for us lowly students.

Books at this level you are buying the content not the physical goods.

But remember on grad level texts, a lot of time goes into the creation of those books. Plus they only sell a handful every semester or even in a whole year. That's the reason for the prices. Then again it's not as if University professors are the working poor either. I loved my prof's who took pity and used their own books and just gave us zerox copies. Hang in there once you are in grad school it's all downhill from there. Of course dishwashers often earn more than some prof's pay their TA's and assistants keeping all their grant money for their greedy paws!!

[Blue Tyson]

Wouldn't that just be the trade ebook sales number, not trade + educational?

[Janette55]

I wonder how many students will turn to buying etextbooks? In that area personally I would stay with the old fashioned DTB. I would find it too hard switching from one page to another.

As for grad prices, I am taking a break from my masters, and the last book I bought cost around $160. I paid almost $200 for my DSM-IV TR when it came out and now it is around $100. The Stats class had us buying a text book for less than $100 but software was over $200, so total was over $300 for that class.
Deosn't happen that often, fortunately.

Going back to it, do the ebooks cost as much as the DTB, less or a lot more? Don't even what to think about Doctorate level classes.

[Penforhire]

Well, the advantage of e-textbooks is much easier searching, much lighter travel, and no wait to "get" the book. My wife continues her Capella University post-grad work on the road with nothing more than a netbook. But the prices feel like body blows.

[Hellmark]

With the way that e-textbooks are currently, don't expect people to really switch any time soon.

McGraw Hill's "ebooks" are really just a webpage. I currently am using one for one of my classes, and you login to the webpage, read it like you would any other webpage. I paid $90 (instead of $170 for a brand new copy of the hardcover book), and only have access for 6 months.

Many other's do have the ebook be downloadable, but have their own special format, DRM, and reader software to use it. Many of the ebooks available for my school are only possible to be read on Windows or MacOS machines.

The 6 month time limit is very common. If you have to use the book for more than one semester, the ebook is NOT worth it, especially when you consider than on many ebooks you only end up paying like $20 less than the paper book.

[Janette55]

I guess I am just weird, I still have most of my books (in my major) from undergrad days. I can't use then in refences (not even current ones) but they still can be of helpful. I have three different books on theories, as one will mention some names and another others; they all will mention the more "important" names, but have different in the lesser ones.

I have all of mine from my master's, except one sadistics (oopps, statistics) class.