NYT: Ebooks and Fiction are Reviving the Book Biz

[Kali Yuga]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/bo...e-2008.html?hp

"The publishing industry has expanded in the past three years as Americans increasingly turned to e-books and juvenile and adult fiction... In 2010 publishers generated net revenue of $27.9 billion, a 5.6 percent increase over 2008. Publishers sold 2.57 billion books in all formats in 2010, a 4.1 percent increase since 2008."

[MrsJoseph]

I wonder what the "woe is me, we're being killed by the ebook business" publishers are going to say in reply to this? (If anything at all)

BookStats, a comprehensive survey conducted by two major trade groups that was released early Tuesday, revealed that in 2010 publishers generated net revenue of $27.9 billion, a 5.6 percent increase over 2008. Publishers sold 2.57 billion books in all formats in 2010, a 4.1 percent increase since 2008.

E-books were another bright spot, thanks to the proliferation and declining cost of e-reading devices like the Nook by Barnes & Noble and Amazon’s Kindle, and the rush by publishers to digitize older books.

In 2008 e-books were 0.6 percent of the total trade market; in 2010, they were 6.4 percent. Publishers have seen especially robust e-book sales in genre fiction like romance, mystery and thrillers, as well as literary fiction. In 2010, 114 million e-books were sold, the report said.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

I wonder what the "woe is me, we're being killed by the ebook business" publishers are going to say in reply to this? (If anything at all)

Really curious to see the 2011 eBook numbers, as that will be the first year all 5 publishers went the Agency route.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

I wonder what the "woe is me, we're being killed by the ebook business" publishers are going to say in reply to this?

I haven't heard any big publishers say that in quite some time, they've mostly been on board since agency pricing started. There probably are still concerns over ebooks cannibalizing hardcover sales (which are high margin), but agency pricing generally protects those margins.

It may still be a tough transition for small publishers with large back catalogs, though. It's not cheap to convert all those books and negotiate digital rights for older titles.

[Lazybones]

And that doesn't even count self-publishers. At the moment everybody seems to be benefitting from the spread of e-books, but I wonder what the longer-term pressures on the agency pricing model will be as more and more people are able to avoid going through the big houses either to sell or to buy books.

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by Lazybones

And that doesn't even count self-publishers. At the moment everybody seems to be benefitting from the spread of e-books, but I wonder what the longer-term pressures on the agency pricing model will be as more and more people are able to avoid going through the big houses either to sell or to buy books.

self-publishers are fine, but i have had better experiences with books from the big houses, probably because of better editing. it can be expensive, but i hope most authors don't skimp on it~

[Lazybones]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

self-publishers are fine, but i have had better experiences with books from the big houses, probably because of better editing. it can be expensive, but i hope most authors don't skimp on it~

Heh, I found two typos in my Kindle version of A Dance with Dragons last night. One was just a minor punctuation issue, but the second was Tyrion musing that he could "lose" only one bolt from his crossbow in a battle. But I agree with your overall point.

Bad editing turns me off a book right off as well, but since most e-publishers allow free samples, I find that I can separate the wheat from the chaff fairly quickly.