Sunday, January 30, 2011

Amazon's eBook Sales Surpass Paperback

Check this out: Amazon announced on Friday that it is selling more eBooks than paperback books for the first time!!  Here's what they reported: 
"Amazon.com is now selling more Kindle books than paperback books. Since the beginning of the year, for every 100 paperback books Amazon has sold, the company has sold 115 Kindle books. Additionally, during this same time period the company has sold three times as many Kindle books as hardcover books.
"This is across Amazon.com's entire US book business and includes sales of books where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the numbers even higher."
With the info provided, if you do the math and add hardcover and paperback together it indicates that Amazon is still selling more paper-based books that eBooks (120:100). And it is possible that this after-Christmas rush to load up newly gifted Kindles with eBooks will subside, but it is nonetheless huge news. And highly motivating. It is also true that eBook pricing is generally a lot lower than paper, so top line sales are surely higher for paper, still. But this is super encouraging for us book entrepreneurs who mostly need to make it work in eBooks. (I've noticed over and over in all of the indie success stories it isn't about print -- it's all about ebooks.) Exciting stuff!!


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