E-book sales outstripping hardcovers: Amazon

Sales of the titles for the Amazon Kindle e-reader device are “accelerating”, according to the online retailer, which claims that it is now selling 180 e-books for every 100 hardcover books sold.

The online retailer said it had sold 143 e-books for every 100 hardcover books over the past three months, but that this trend had accelerated in the past month to 180 e-books. Crucially, the figure does not include books available as a free download.

Amazon also said demand for its e-reading device, the Kindle, had tripled over the second quarter of 2010.

Founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos said: “Even while our hardcover sales continue to grow, the Kindle format has now overtaken the hardcover format. Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books – astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months.”

A recent study from the Australian Booksellers Association estimated that within five years, e-books will account for 20-25% of all books sold. The figure currently stands at 5%.

Meanwhile, the Australian Society of Authors has published a report saying that e-books may become more attractive to authors because they can claim a greater share of royalties than they get from printed books.

The rise of e-readers like the Kindle and the Apple iPad has been met with concern by the Australian book printing industry, as many fear that the trend towards e-books will come at the expense of print.

Last year, the federal government said the Australian book printing industry would come under “strong competitive pressure” from “the technology of electronic books (e-books) like Kindle Books [sic]”.

Click here for the latest headlines from across the printing industry.

Comment below to have your say on this story.

If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.  

Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter

Leave a comment:

Your email address will not be published. All fields are required

Advertisement

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.
Advertisement