Sales of ebooks for fiction more often than not top 50% of the total sales

[Top100EbooksRank]

http://www.idealog.com/blog/stats-ar...-our-business/

I wanted to get a handle on two things: where we are now in terms of books sold in stores versus books sold other ways and whether the transition from print to digital consumption is slowing down.

The picture I got from nine smart and well-informed agents seems to confirm that:

* sales of ebooks for fiction more often than not top 50% of the total sales, in both the hardcover life and the paperback;

* sales of ebooks for immersive non-fiction are at something like half the percentage of fiction;

* illustrated books do a lot less in their digital editions, which usually struggle to reach 10% of the sale;

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by Top100EbooksRank

http://www.idealog.com/blog/stats-ar...-our-business/

It might be more useful to split out the sales as numbers of books, and total money for each type.

[GlenBarrington]

The comment about illustrated books not doing as well as their print counterparts, seems quite believable to me. Particularly since any book that is heavily graphics oriented is likely to sell more to people who really want the best viewing experience possible.

And let's face it, print graphics can be VERY good when the publishers want it to be. Print graphics is probably at the very peak of its display capabilities, while e-graphics is still in its earliest, most basic, stages.

It is only natural for those looking for the best possible "eye appeal" to gravitate to paper. As a photographer, I wouldn't buy a photo book in its e version.

[derangedhermit]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

The comment about illustrated books not doing as well as their print counterparts, seems quite believable to me. Particularly since any book that is heavily graphics oriented is likely to sell more to people who really want the best viewing experience possible.

And let's face it, print graphics can be VERY good when the publishers want it to be. Print graphics is probably at the very peak of its display capabilities, while e-graphics is still in its earliest, most basic, stages.

It is only natural for those looking for the best possible "eye appeal" to gravitate to paper. As a photographer, I wouldn't buy a photo book in its e version.

Contrast and color saturation on displays have long far exceeded what can be done on paper, going back to CRT displays. The printed page cannot begin to display what the eye can capture in terms of contrast.

Only display resolution remains as an issue - it will take 4K displays to address that for large screens (for distant or group viewing). LCD screens in PC sizes with dot pitch approaching 300 ppi, is, as far as I'm concerned, very good, although it does not approach what some forms of printing produce, and I miss that sharpness.

Color accuracy is an issue for both displays and printing, but a very good job (or a very poor job) can be done on either.

A photo ebook that delivers good images is going to have a very large file size though, in comparison to most ebooks.